Data processing system for managing activities linked to multimedia content

ABSTRACT

An activity management system is configured to allow users to access multimedia content where the multimedia content is divided into segments. While a user is viewing or interacting with the multimedia content, the user can submit one or more activities (e.g., comments, questions, replies, or reactions) using an interface. The system is operable to electronically link the activity provided by the user with the particular segment of multimedia content in which the activity was captured by the system. The system is also configured to throttle the number of activities that are displayed to a user for any given segment based on (1) viewers linked to the user (e.g., groups, social media groups, etc.), (2) viewers that influence the user, (3) viewers selected by the user, (4) viewers that cause the user to be engaged with the multimedia content, and (5) a threshold number of activities set by the viewer or the system.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/988,878, filed May 24, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/785,002, filed Oct. 16, 2017, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,984,426, issued May 29, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/619,481, filed Jun. 10, 2017, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,852,480, issued Dec. 26, 2017, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/448,674, filed Jan. 20, 2017;and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/348,555, filed Jun.10, 2016, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by referencein their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Creators of content and consumers of the content (e.g., lessons, video,presentations, news articles, questionnaires, etc.) may desire betterways to collaborate with other content creators and consumers. Contentcreators may further desire to receive more detailed feedback fromconsumers of their content in order to improve the content. Accordingly,there is a need for improved systems and methods that address these andother desires.

SUMMARY

In any embodiment described herein, a computer-implemented dataprocessing method for electronically managing a conversation that islinked to one or more segments of multimedia content that is dividedinto a plurality of segments, and for filtering the displayedconversation based on various criteria, comprises the steps of (1)determining, by one or more processors, one or more throttling criteriaassociated with a first viewer, (2) at least partially in response todetermining one or more throttling criteria for the first viewer,identifying, by one or more processors, one or more of the electronicdata records that are associated with segments of the multimedia contentbased at least in part on the one or more filtering criteria, and (3)displaying, by one or more processors, on a display interface theidentified one or more of the plurality of activities as a segment ofthe multimedia content associated with the identified one or more of theplurality of activities is displayed to the first viewer. In variousembodiments, the identified one or more of the plurality of activitiesare activities associated with one or more viewers preselected by thefirst viewer. In other embodiments, the identified one or more of theplurality of activities are activities associated with one or moreviewers that belong to a group to which the first viewer belongs. Instill other embodiments, the identified one or more of the plurality ofactivities are activities associated with one or more viewers that havepreviously influenced the first viewer. In some embodiments, a viewerpreviously influences the first viewer when the first viewer previouslysubmitted an activity in response to another viewer's activity. In stillother embodiments, the identified one or more of the plurality ofactivities are activities that contain subject matter that are similarto the subject matter of the first viewers activities that have beenpreviously submitted by the first viewer. In some embodiments, themethod further comprises the step of allowing the first viewer to switchto a display view where the first viewer can view all of the activitiesassociated with a particular segment of the multimedia content. In yetother embodiments, filtering the plurality of electronic data recordsbased at least in part on the one or more activity display criteriafurther comprises limiting the number of activities that are displayedfor a particular segment of the multimedia content to a predefinedthreshold value.

A computer-implemented data processing method for electronically mappingone or more user or activities to a respective segment of a piece ofmedia content and electronically displaying the one or more activitiesin association with the respective segment of the piece of mediacontent, according to various embodiments, comprises: (1) providing auser interface for submitting the one or more user activities regardingthe piece of media content, the one or more user activities comprising afirst activity and a second activity; (2) identifying a plurality ofsegments that make up the piece of media content; (3) electronicallyreceiving, via the user interface, the first activity at a first time;(4) processing the first activity; (5) displaying, at a second timesubsequent to the first time the first activity in association with thefirst segment of the piece of media content; (6) electronicallyreceiving, via the user interface, the second activity at a third time,wherein the third time is subsequent to the first time; (7) processingthe second activity; (8) displaying, at a fourth time subsequent to thesecond time and the third time, the first activity in association withthe first segment of the piece of media content and the second activityin association with the second segment of the piece of media content.

In some embodiments, processing the first activity comprises: (1)digitally storing the first activity in memory; (2) mapping the firstactivity to a first segment of the plurality of segments based at leastin part on the first activity; and (3) electronically associating thefirst activity, the first segment, and the piece of media content inmemory. In various other embodiments, processing the second activitycomprises: (1) digitally storing the second activity in memory; (2)mapping the second activity to a second segment of the plurality ofsegments based at least in part on the first activity; and (4)electronically associating the second activity, the second segment, andthe piece of media content in memory.

In particular embodiments, the plurality of segments comprise one ormore time segments and/or one or more location segments. In someembodiments, the second activity comprises a response and/or a reply tothe first activity.

A computer-implemented method of providing one or more activities tosubsequent viewers of a piece of multimedia in a time-shifted manneraccording to an activity map, according to various embodimentscomprises: (1) identifying, by one or more activity management servers,a plurality of segments that make up a piece of multimedia; (2)receiving, by the one or more activity management servers, a pluralityof activities from one or more users prior to a first time, eachparticular activity of the plurality of activities being associated witha respective particular segment of the plurality of segments; (3)generating, by the one or more activity management servers, an activitymap for the piece of multimedia based at least in part on the pluralityof segments. In particular embodiments, the activity map is configuredto indicate: (1) the association between each particular activity of theplurality of activities and the respective particular segment of theplurality of segments; and (2) one or more associations between one ormore particular activities of the plurality of activities and one ormore other activities of the plurality of activities.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: (1) receiving, by theone or more activity management servers, one or more additionalactivities at one or more times subsequent to the first time, eachparticular one of the one or more additional activities being associatedwith a respective particular segment of the plurality of segments; (2)as the system receives each particular one of the one or more additionalactivities, substantially continuously updating, by the one or moreactivity management servers, the activity map to indicate: (A) theassociation between each particular one of the one or more additionalactivities and the respective particular segment; and (B) one or moreassociations between the one or more additional activities and theplurality of activities.

In various embodiments, the method further comprises providing, by theone or more activity management servers: (1) first data indicating eachparticular segment of the plurality of segments that is associated withat least one activity of the plurality of activities or the one or moreadditional activities; and (2) second data indicating the one or moreassociations between the one or more particular activities of theplurality of activities and the one or more other activities of theplurality of activities and the one or more associations between the oneor more additional activities and the plurality of activities

In further embodiments, the method further comprises: (1) receiving, atthe first time, by the one or more activity management servers, from aclient device, a first request to display one or more activitiesassociated with the piece of multimedia; (2) in response to the firstrequest, providing, by the one or more activity management servers, theplurality of activities for display on the client device along with thepiece of multimedia according to the activity map; (3) receiving, at asecond time subsequent to the first time, by the one or more activitymanagement servers, from a client device, a second request to displaythe one or more activities associated with the piece of multimedia; and(4) in response to the second request, providing, by the one or moreactivity management servers, the plurality of activities and the one ormore additional activities received prior to the second time for displayon the client device along with the piece of multimedia according to theactivity map.

A computer-implemented method of facilitating asynchronous conversationbetween one or more consumers of a plurality of pieces of multimedia, invarious embodiments, comprises storing a plurality of activities, eachof the plurality of activities being associated, in memory, with asegment identifier identifying a particular segment of a particular oneof the plurality of pieces of multimedia; (2) receiving a first activityassociated with a first piece of multimedia of the plurality of piecesof multimedia; and (3) performing one or more actions in response toreceiving the first activity. In various embodiments, the one or moreactions comprise: (1) digitally storing the first activity in memory;(2) mapping the first activity to a first segment of the first piece ofmultimedia; and (3) electronically associating the first activity, thefirst segment, and the first piece of multimedia in memory. In someembodiments, the plurality of pieces of multimedia comprise a pluralityof pieces of multimedia that are at least partially related to oneanother. For example, the plurality of pieces of media may comprise aplurality of different types of multimedia that form a single piece ofmultimedia. In other embodiments, the plurality of pieces of multimediamay make up a particular lesson or course (e.g., online course, class,etc.).

A computer-implemented method of facilitating asynchronous conversationbetween one or more consumers of multimedia, according to variousembodiments, comprises storing a plurality of activities, each of theplurality of activities being associated, in memory, with a segmentidentifier identifying a particular segment of the multimedia. In someembodiments, the plurality of activities comprise a first activityassociated with a first segment of the multimedia. In such embodiments,the method may further comprise: (1) receiving a second activity, thesecond activity being associated with the first segment and comprising areply to the first activity; (2) generating one or more alerts; (3)transmitting the one or more alerts to one or more individuals; and (4)enabling the one or more individuals to view the second activity withouthaving to view the multimedia. In various embodiments, the one or moreindividuals may include, for example: (1) a facilitator of themultimedia; (2) a creator of the multimedia (e.g., a content creator);(3) a user that submitted the first activity; (4) one or moreindividuals that had previously consumed (e.g., viewed, watched, read,etc.) the multimedia). In various embodiments, the method furthercomprises enabling the one or more individuals to respond to the secondactivity without viewing the multimedia.

A computer-implemented data processing method of facilitating aplurality of asynchronous conversations between/among one or moreconsumers of multimedia and displaying a graphical representation of theplurality of conversations, in various embodiments, comprises: (1)storing a plurality of activities, each of the plurality of activitiesbeing associated, in memory, with a particular segment identifieridentifying a particular segment of a plurality of segments that make upthe multimedia; (2) generating a graphical display of activityassociated with the multimedia, wherein generating the graphical displaycomprises determining the activity based at least in part one: (A) anactivity density for each of the plurality of segments; (B) a type ofactivity that makes up the activity density for each of the plurality ofsegments; and/or (C) any other suitable factor.

In various embodiments, the computer-implemented data processing methodof facilitating a plurality of asynchronous conversations between/amongone or more consumers of multimedia and displaying a graphicalrepresentation of the plurality of conversations, further comprises: (1)a request to view one or more activities associated with a particularsegment; and (2) in response to the request, displaying the one or moreactivities associated with the particular segment. In other embodiments,the method comprises: (1) receiving a request to filter the graphicaldisplay based at least in part on an activity term; (2) in response tothe response to the request, identifying one or more of the plurality ofactivities that comprise the term; and (3) displaying, adjacent thegraphical display, each of the identified activities that comprise theterm in association with an associated particular segment. In stillother embodiments, the method comprises: (1) receiving selection of aparticular user; (2) in response to the response to the request,identifying one or more of the plurality of activities made by theparticular user; (3) modifying the graphical display to reflect onlythose one or more of the plurality of activities made by the particularuser; and (4) displaying, adjacent the modified graphical display, eachof the one or more of the plurality of activities made by the particularuser.

In various embodiments, a computer-implemented data processing methodfor electronically linking one or more activities to a respectivesegment of multimedia content so that at least two users can create anasynchronous conversation that is linked to the segments of themultimedia content. The method comprises the steps of (1) providing, byan activity management system, a first graphical user interfacecomprising a first segment display, wherein each segment on the firstsegment display is associated with a respective segment of multimediacontent being viewed by a first viewer, (2) receiving at a first time,via the first graphical user interface, a first activity from the firstviewer of the multimedia content, (3) electronically linking, by theactivity management system, the received first activity to a firstsegment of the multimedia content, (4) creating a first electronicrecord that comprises one or more of the first activity, a multimediaidentifier for the multimedia content, a first viewer identifier, and afirst segment identifier for the first segment, and digitally storingthe first electronic record, and (5) presenting, on the first graphicaluser interface, a first representation of the first activity on thefirst segment display in association with a point on the first segmentdisplay corresponding to the first segment of the multimedia content.

In various embodiments, the step of electronically linking, by theactivity management system, the received first activity to a firstsegment of the multimedia content further comprises one of (1) linkingthe first activity with a particular segment being viewed by the firstviewer when the first viewer begins to enter the first activity, (2)linking the first activity with (a) a first particular segment beingviewed by the first viewer when the first viewer begins to enter thefirst activity, (b) a second particular segment being viewed by thefirst viewer when the first viewer submits the first activity, or (c)all segments positioned intermediate the first particular segment andthe second particular segment, and (3) linking the first activity with afirst particular segment that is determined by (a) counting the numberof segments from a segment being viewed when the first viewer begins toenter the first activity to a segment being viewed when the first viewersubmits the first activity, (b) determining a predefined percentage ofthe counted number of segments, and (c) calculating the first particularsegment by subtracting the predefined percentage of the of the countednumber of segments from the segment being viewed when the first viewerbegan to enter the first activity, or (4) linking the first activitywith a first particular segment that is manually selected by the firstuser.

In preferred embodiments, the first segment display comprises (1) afirst plurality of segments, wherein each one of the first plurality ofsegments represent a unit of time of video or audio file contained aspart of the multimedia content, and (2) a second plurality of segments,wherein each one of the second plurality of segments represent aposition in a document. In some embodiments, the document is selectedfrom a group consisting of a word processing file, a spreadsheet file,an image file, a portable document format (PDF) file, or a website page.

In various embodiments, the method further comprises the steps ofpresenting, at a second time that occurs before the first time, on thefirst graphical user interface a representation of one or moreactivities received from other users, wherein each of the one or moreactivities is linked to a respective segment of the multimedia content,and each of the one or more activities is also associated with the firstviewer. In some embodiments, the first activity is an activity selectedfrom a group consisting of (1) a reply to a particular one of the one ormore activities, (2) a question entered via the first user interface infree form text, and (3) a reaction entered via the first user interface,wherein a reaction further comprises an emoticon selected from one ormore emoticons displayed on the first user interface. In particularembodiments, when the first activity is a reply to a particular one ofthe one or more activities, the first electronic record furthercomprises an identifier for the particular one of the one or moreactivities, and the first segment identifier is the same as a segmentidentifier for the respective segment linked to the particular one ofthe one or more activities. In other embodiments, at least one of theone or more activities is selected from a group consisting of (1) apre-seeded question, comment or reply that is presented to elicit aresponse from the first viewer, (2) pre-seeded surveys, and (3) adiscussion point pre-seeded by the multimedia content owner.

In various embodiments, the method further comprises the steps of (1)generating, by the activity management system, a plurality of segmentdisplays, each one of the plurality of segment displays being presentedon a respective one of a plurality of graphical user interfaces, whereineach segment on each of the plurality of segment displays is associatedwith a corresponding segment of the multimedia content being viewed by aplurality of viewers, (2) presenting on each one of the plurality ofgraphical user interfaces the first representation of the first activityat a point on each one of the plurality of segment displays thatcorresponds to the segment of the multimedia content that is associatedwith the first activity, (3) receiving at a plurality of times that areeach after the first time, via each respective one of the plurality ofgraphical user interfaces, one or more activities from each one of theplurality of viewers of the multimedia content, (4) electronicallylinking, by the activity management system, each received one or moreactivities to a respective segment of the multimedia content, (5)creating a corresponding electronic record for each received one or moreactivities from the plurality of viewers, each corresponding electronicrecord comprising a respective activity from the one or more activities,the multimedia identifier for the multimedia content, an identifier ofthe viewer from the plurality of viewers, and a segment identifier forthe respective segment linked to the respective activity, and digitallystoring each corresponding electronic record, and (6) presenting, oneach one of the plurality of graphical user interfaces, a representationof each one of the one or more activities at a point on the plurality ofsegment displays that corresponds to the respective segment of themultimedia content that is linked with each respective activity. In someembodiments, at least one of the one or more activities from theplurality of viewers is a reply to the first activity. In otherembodiments, the electronic record for the at least one of the one ormore activities further comprises an identifier for the first activity,and the segment identifier for the at least one of the one or moreactivities is the same as the first segment identifier for the firstactivity.

In various embodiments, the method further comprises the steps of (1)receiving at one or more times that are each after the first time, viathe first graphical user interface, one or more activities from thefirst viewer, (2) electronically linking, by the activity managementsystem, each received one or more activities to a respective segment ofthe multimedia content, (3) creating a plurality of electronic recordsfor each received one or more activities, each one of the plurality ofelectronic records comprising one or more of the respective activity ofthe one or more activities, the multimedia identifier for the multimediacontent, an identifier of the viewer, and segment information associatedwith the respective activity, and digitally storing each one of theplurality of electronic records, and (4) presenting, on the firstgraphical user interface, a representation of each one of the one ormore activities at a point on the segment display that corresponds tothe respective segment of the multimedia content that is associated witheach respective activity of the one or more activities. In someembodiments, each one of the one or more activities is selected from agroup consisting of (a) a predefined text activity that the first viewercan select via the first graphical user interface, (b) a custom textentry that is entered by the first viewer via the first graphical userinterface, and (c) a plurality of reactions that the first viewer canselect from via the first graphical user interface. In theseembodiments, the computer-implemented data processing method furthercomprises the steps of (1) generating a sentiment value for each one ofthe one or more activities, wherein each predefined text activity isassigned a corresponding predefined sentiment value, each type ofreaction from the plurality of reactions has a corresponding predefinedsentiment value and each custom text entry is passed through a sentimentfilter that determines a sentiment value based on the contents of thecustom text, and (2) transforming the sentiment value for each of theone or more activities into a sentiment score for the first viewer.

In various embodiments, the method further comprises the steps of (1)receiving at a plurality of times that are after the first time, via thefirst graphical user interface, one or more additional activities fromthe first viewer of the multimedia content, (2) electronically linking,by the activity management system, each of the received one or moreadditional activities to a respective one or more segments of themultimedia content that is associated with each of the received one ormore activities, (3) and creating a corresponding electronic record foreach of the one or more activities, wherein each correspondingelectronic record comprises a respective additional activity, themultimedia identifier for the multimedia content, an identifier of thefirst viewer, and a segment identifier for the respective one or moresegments of the multimedia content that is linked with the respectiveactivity, and digitally storing each corresponding electronic record. Insome embodiments, the method further comprises one or more stepsselected from a group consisting of (a) determining a length of timethat the first viewer spends viewing each segment of the multimediacontent, (b) determining a total number of activities submitted by thefirst viewer for the multimedia content, (c) determining a total numberof activities submitted by the first viewer for all multimedia contentviewed by the first viewer, (d) determining a total number of activitiessubmitted by the first viewer for each type of content that is containedin the multimedia content, wherein the type of content comprises one ormore of audio content, video content, and documents, (e) determining atotal number of activities submitted by the first viewer that elicited aconversation with one or more other viewers, (f) determining a totalnumber of activities submitted by the first viewer that were in reply toan activity submitted by another viewer, (g) determining a total numberof activities submitted by the first viewer that were questions, (h)determining a total number of activities submitted by the first viewerthat were questions that elicited a response from other viewers, (i)determining a total number of reactions and/or type of reactions thatwere elicited from other viewers in response to activities submitted bythe first viewer, (j) determining a total number of reactions and/ortype of reactions that were submitted by the first viewer, (k)determining a total number of reactions and/or types of reactions thatwere submitted by other users, (l) determining a day and/or a time ofday for each activity submitted by the first viewer, (m) determining atotal number of words in each activity submitted by the first viewer,(n) assigning a sentiment value to each one of the activities, wherein(i) each predefined text activity is assigned a corresponding predefinedsentiment value, (ii) each type of reaction from the plurality ofreactions has a corresponding predefined sentiment value, and (iii) eachcustom text entry is passed through a sentiment filter that determines asentiment value based on the contents of the custom text, and (o)determining a total number of activities submitted for each segment ofcontent for the multimedia content. In various embodiments, the systemcan calculate an engagement score for the first viewer from one or moreof the above data points. In various embodiments, the system can alsocalculate an influence score for the first viewer based on one or moreof the above data points, in addition to other activities.

In various embodiments, the system may be configured to determine thelearning characteristics of the first viewer based on one or more of (1)the length of time that the first viewer spends viewing each segment ofmultimedia content, (2) the day and/or the time of day for each activitysubmitted by the first viewer, (3) the number of activities submitted bythe first viewer for each type of content that was viewed by the firstviewer, (4) the number of activities submitted by the first viewer foreach segment of multimedia content viewed by the first viewer, (5) thetotal number of activities submitted by the first viewer that were inreply to an activity submitted by another viewer, and (6) the totalnumber of activities submitted by the first viewer that were questions.The learning characteristics for the first viewer may comprise (1) thetype of content that best suits the learning style of the first viewer,wherein the types of content are selected from a group consisting ofaudio content, video content, documents, image content, and logicalproblem content, (2) the day and/or time of day that the first viewer ismost engaged, and (3) whether the first viewer is easily influenced byothers.

In preferred embodiments of a computer-implemented data processingmethod for electronically managing a conversation that is linked to oneor more segments of multimedia content that is divided into a pluralityof segments, and for electronically analyzing the activities that makeup the conversation, the method comprises (1) selecting one or moreelectronic data records from a plurality of electronic data records thatare linked to one or more segments of a particular multimedia content,wherein each one of the selected one or more electronic data recordscomprises activity information that is part of a conversation related toone or more segments of a particular multimedia content, an identifierof the particular multimedia content and one or more data fieldsselected from a group consisting of (i) an identifier of the viewer thatsubmitted the activity, (ii) segment information for a segment of theparticular multimedia content associated with the activity, (iii) anidentifier of a type of activity, (iv) an identifier for a relatedactivity, (v) a time stamp for when the activity was initiated, (vi) atime stamp for when the activity was submitted, (vii) a length of theactivity, (viii) a reaction type, (ix) a reply count, (x) an activitycount, (xi) a question flag, (xii) an answer flag, and (xiv) an activitytype, (2) generating a sentiment value for each one of the one or moreelectronic data records selected from the plurality of electronic datarecords, and (3) transforming the sentiment values for the one or moreelectronic data records into at least one sentiment score. In someembodiments, generating a sentiment value for each one of the one ormore electronic data records further comprises (a) evaluating theactivity information for each particular one of the one or moreelectronic data records to determine the type of activity containedtherein, wherein the type of activity is selected from a groupconsisting of (i) a predefined text activity that the first viewer canselect via the first graphical user interface, (ii) a plurality ofreactions that a viewer can select from via a graphical user interfacewhen viewing the particular multimedia content, and (iii) a custom textentry that is entered by the viewer via the graphical user interface inresponse to the content of the particular multimedia content or to anactivity made by another viewer, and (b) calculating a sentiment valuefor each activity type, wherein (i) each predefined text activity isassigned a corresponding predefined sentiment value, (ii) each type ofreaction from the plurality of reactions has a corresponding predefinedsentiment value, and (iii) each custom text entry is passed through asentiment filter that determines a sentiment value based on the contentsof the custom text. In some embodiments, the step of selecting one ormore electronic data records from a plurality of electronic data recordsthat are linked to one or more segments of a particular multimediacontent further comprises selecting the one or more electronic datarecords for a particular viewer. Additionally, the step of transformingthe sentiment values for the one or more electronic data records into atleast one sentiment score further comprises generating a sentiment scorefor each segment of the particular multimedia content based on each ofthe one or more electronic data records linked to the respective eachsegment of the particular multimedia content.

In particular embodiments, the method further comprises one or moresteps selected from a group consisting of (a) determining, from theselected one or more electronic data records for the particular viewer,a length of time that the particular viewer spends viewing each of theone or more segments of the particular multimedia content, (b)determining, from the selected one or more electronic data records forthe particular viewer, a total number of activities submitted by theparticular viewer for the particular multimedia content, (c)determining, from the selected one or more electronic data records forthe particular viewer, a total number of activities submitted by theparticular viewer for each type of content that is contained in theparticular multimedia content, wherein the type of content comprises oneor more of audio content, video content, and documents, (d) determining,from the selected one or more electronic data records for the particularviewer, a total number of activities submitted by the particular viewerthat elicited a conversation with one or more other viewers, (e)determining, from the selected one or more electronic data records forthe particular viewer, a total number of activities submitted by theparticular viewer that were in reply to an activity submitted by anotherviewer, (f) determining, from the selected one or more electronic datarecords for the particular viewer, a total number of activitiessubmitted by the particular viewer that were questions, (g) determining,from the selected one or more electronic data records for the particularviewer, a total number of activities submitted by the particular viewerthat were questions that elicited a response from other viewers, (h)determining, from the selected one or more electronic data records forthe particular viewer, a total number of reactions and/or type ofreactions that were elicited from other viewers in response toactivities submitted by the particular viewer, (i) determining, from theselected one or more electronic data records for the particular viewer,a total number of reactions and/or type of reactions that were submittedby the particular viewer, (j) determining, from the selected one or moreelectronic data records for the particular viewer, a day and/or a timeof day for each activity submitted by the particular viewer, and (k)determining, from the selected one or more electronic data records forthe particular viewer, a total number of words in each activitysubmitted by the particular viewer. In some of these embodiments, thesystem can calculate an engagement score for the particular viewer withrespect to the particular multimedia content based on one or more of theabove data points. In some of these embodiments, the system cancalculate an influence score for the particular viewer based on one ormore of the above data points.

In various embodiments, the method further comprises the steps of (1)filtering the selected one or more electronic data records by a segmentidentifier for one segment of the particular multimedia content, (2)generating a sentiment value for each electronic data record of thefiltered, selected one or more electronic data records, and (3)transforming the generated sentiment values for each electronic datarecord of the filtered, selected one or more electronic data recordsinto a sentiment score for the one segment of the particular multimediacontent. In other embodiments the method further comprises (1)separating the selected one or more electronic data records into a firstplurality of electronic data records that are associated with a firstsegment of the particular multimedia content, and a second plurality ofelectronic data records that are associated with a second segment of theparticular multimedia content, (2) generating a sentiment value for eachelectronic data record in the first plurality of electronic data recordsand each electronic data record in the second plurality of electronicdata records, (3) transforming the sentiments values for the firstplurality of electronic data records into a first sentiment score, andthe second plurality of electronic data records into a second sentimentscore, and (4) displaying the first sentiment score and the secondsentiment score on a graphical user interface. In some of theseembodiments, the step of displaying the first sentiment score and thesecond sentiment score on a graphical user interface further comprisesgenerating a histogram of the first and second sentiment scores versusthe corresponding first and second segments.

Preferred embodiments of an electronic data processing system forelectronically managing a conversation that is linked to one or moresegments of multimedia content divided into a plurality of segments, andfor electronically analyzing the activities that make up theconversation comprises (1) one or more processors, (2) one or moredatabases coupled to the one or more processors, and (3) a plurality ofelectronic data records stored in the one or more databases, each one ofthe plurality of electronic data records corresponding to an activitysubmitted by a viewer and comprising a content of the activity, anidentifier for the multimedia content, an identifier for the viewer whosubmitted the activity, and one or more data fields selected from agroup consisting of (i) a time stamp for when the activity wasinitiated, (ii) a time stamp for when the activity was submitted, (iii)a length of the activity, (iv) a reaction type, (v) a reply count, (vi)an activity count, (vii) a question flag, (viii) an answer flag, (ix) anactivity type, and (x) an identifier for a related activity. Inpreferred embodiments, the one or more processors are configured for (a)evaluating the activity information for each of one or more of theplurality of electronic data records to determine the type of activitycontained therein, wherein the type of activity is selected from a groupconsisting of (i) a predefined text activity that the first viewer canselect via the first graphical user interface, (ii) a plurality ofreactions that a viewer can select from via a graphical user interfacewhen viewing the particular multimedia content, and (iii) a custom textentry that is entered by the viewer via the graphical user interface inresponse to the content of the particular multimedia content or to anactivity made by another viewer, (b) calculating a sentiment value foreach activity type, wherein (i) each predefined text activity isassigned a corresponding predefined sentiment value, (ii) each type ofreaction from the plurality of reactions has a corresponding predefinedsentiment value, and (iii) each custom text entry is passed through asentiment filter to determine a sentiment value based on the contents ofthe custom text, and (c) transforming the generated sentiment values forthe one or more of the plurality of electronic data records into one ormore sentiment scores.

In some preferred embodiments, the one or more of the plurality ofelectronic data records belong to either a first plurality of electronicdata records linked to a first segment of the multimedia content or to asecond plurality of electronic data records linked to a second segmentof the multimedia content. In some of these embodiments, (a) the step oftransforming the generated sentiment values for the one or more of theplurality of electronic data records into one or more sentiment scoresfurther comprises calculating (i) a first sentiment score for the firstsegment of the multimedia content, and (ii) a second sentiment score forthe second segment of multimedia content, and (b) wherein the one ormore processors are further configured to display a graph of the firstsentiment score and the second sentiment score versus the first andsecond segment. In some embodiments, the first and second pluralities ofelectronic data records are linked to a particular viewer. In otherembodiments, the first and second pluralities of electronic data recordsare for all viewers of the multimedia content. In still otherembodiments, the first and second pluralities of electronic data recordsare linked a particular group of viewers.

In an embodiment of a computer-implemented method of facilitatingasynchronous conversation between one or more consumers of a pluralityof pieces of multimedia, the method comprises the steps of (1) storing aplurality of activities, each of the plurality of activities beingassociated, in memory, with a segment identifier identifying aparticular segment of a particular one of the plurality of pieces ofmultimedia, (2) receiving a first activity associated with a first pieceof multimedia of the plurality of pieces of multimedia, (3) in responseto receiving the first activity (a) digitally storing the first activityin memory, (b) mapping the first activity to a first segment of thefirst piece of multimedia, and (c) electronically associating the firstactivity, the first segment, and the first piece of multimedia inmemory, wherein the plurality of pieces of multimedia comprise aplurality of pieces of multimedia selected from the group consisting of(i) a plurality of different types of multimedia, and (ii) a pluralityof different pieces of multimedia that make up a particular lesson orcourse.

In an embodiment of a computer-implemented method of facilitatingasynchronous conversation between one or more consumers of multimedia,the method comprising (1) storing a plurality of activities, each of theplurality of activities being associated, in memory, with a segmentidentifier identifying a particular segment of the multimedia, whereinthe plurality of activities comprise a first activity associated with afirst segment of the multimedia that was received from a first user, (2)receiving a second activity from a user, the second activity beingassociated with the first segment and comprising a reply to the firstactivity, (3) generating one or more alerts, (4) transmitting the one ormore alerts to one or more individuals selected from the groupconsisting of (i) a facilitator of the multimedia, (ii) a creator of themultimedia, and (iii) the first user, and (5) enabling the one or moreindividuals to view the second activity without having to view themultimedia. In some embodiments, the method further comprises enablingthe one or more individuals to respond to the second activity.

In an embodiment of a computer-implemented data processing method offacilitating a plurality of asynchronous conversations between/among oneor more consumers of multimedia and displaying a graphicalrepresentation of the plurality of conversations, the method comprises(1) storing a plurality of activities, each of the plurality ofactivities being associated, in memory, with a particular segmentidentifier identifying a particular segment of a plurality of segmentsthat make up the multimedia, and (2) generating a graphical display ofactivity associated with the multimedia, wherein generating thegraphical display comprises determining the activity based at least inpart on one or more factors selected from the group consisting of (i) anactivity density for each of the plurality of segments, and (ii) a typeof activity that makes up the activity density for each of the pluralityof segments. In some of these embodiments the method further comprises(a) receiving a request to view one or more activities associated with aparticular segment, and (b) in response to the request, displaying theone or more activities associated with the particular segment. In otherembodiments, the method further comprises (a) receiving a request tofilter the graphical display based at least in part on an activity term;(b) in response to the response to the request, identifying one or moreof the plurality of activities that comprise the term, and (c)displaying, adjacent the graphical display, each of the identifiedactivities that comprise the term in association with an associatedparticular segment. In other embodiments, the method further comprises(a) receiving selection of a particular user, (b) in response to theresponse to the request, identifying one or more of the plurality ofactivities made by the particular user, (c) modifying the graphicaldisplay to reflect only those one or more of the plurality of activitiesmade by the particular user, and (d) displaying, adjacent the modifiedgraphical display, each of the one or more of the plurality ofactivities made by the particular user.

In an embodiments of a computer-implemented data processing method offacilitating a plurality of asynchronous conversations between/among oneor more consumers of multimedia and displaying at least a portion of oneor more activities that make up the conversations along with themultimedia, the method comprises (1) storing a plurality of activities,each of the plurality of activities being associated, in memory, with aparticular segment identifier identifying a particular segment of aplurality of segments that make up the multimedia, (2) receiving one ormore activity display criteria, (3) filtering the plurality ofactivities based at least in part on the criteria, and (4) displayingthe filtered activities along with the multimedia based at least in parton an associated segment identifier of each particular filteredactivity.

In an embodiments of a computer-implemented data processing method offacilitating a plurality of asynchronous conversations between/among oneor more consumers of multimedia, fragmenting the multimedia based inpart on sentiment data derived from the conversations; and displayingone or more resulting fragments of the multimedia, the method comprises(1) storing a plurality of activities, each of the plurality ofactivities being associated, in memory, with a particular segmentidentifier identifying a particular segment of a plurality of segmentsthat make up the multimedia, (2) generating one or more ratings for atleast one of (i) a user viewing the multimedia, and (ii) one or more ofthe plurality of segments, (3) identifying one or more sequences basedat least in part on the one or more ratings, (4) receiving, from theuser, a request to view the multimedia on a client device, (5)providing, data indicating the identified one or more sequences, (6)receiving a request for sequences of the multimedia from the clientdevice, the requested sequences corresponding to a first subset of themultimedia indicated in the data, and a second subset of the multimediathat is not indicated in the data, (8) providing the requested sequencesto the client device for playback on the client device.

In various embodiments, an electronic data processing system forelectronically managing a conversation that is linked to one or moresegments of multimedia content divided into a plurality of segments, andfor syncing certain activities to one or more segments of the multimediacontent comprises (1) one or more processors, (2) memory coupled to theone or more processors, and (3) a plurality of electronic data recordsstored in the memory, each one of the plurality of electronic datarecords corresponding to an activity submitted by a viewer of aparticular multimedia content and comprising an identifier for theparticular multimedia content, information associated with the activity,information regarding the segment of the multimedia content the activityis associated with, and one or more data fields selected from a groupconsisting of text contained in the activity, a time stamp for when theactivity was initiated, a time stamp for when the activity wassubmitted, a length of the activity, a number of words contained in theactivity, a reaction type, a reply count, an activity count, a questionflag, an answer flag, an activity type, an identifier for the viewer whosubmitted the activity, and an identifier for a related activity that islinked to the activity. In various embodiments, the one or moreprocessors are configured for (a\) receiving one or more activitydisplay criteria, (b) filtering the plurality of electronic data recordsbased at least in part on the one or more activity display criteria, and(3) displaying activities associated with the one or more of thefiltered electronic data records along with the multimedia based atleast in part on an associated segment identifier of each of the one ormore particular filtered electronic data records.

In some embodiments, receiving one or more activity display criteriafurther comprises determining one or more characteristics associatedwith a first viewer of the particular multimedia content. In variousembodiments, filtering the plurality of electronic data records based atleast in part on the one or more activity display criteria furthercomprises reducing the number of electronic data records to be displayedbased on one or more characteristics selected from the group consistingof (1) a relationship between the first viewer and one or more otherviewers that viewed the particular multimedia content, (2) one or moreother viewers selected by the first viewer, (3) one or more otherviewers whose activities the first viewer has reacted to in the past,and (4) one or more other viewers whose activities the first viewer hasreacted to in a positive manner. In particular embodiments, the one ormore processors are further configured for displaying an indicator thatnotifies the first viewer that the displayed activities are beingfiltered, and at least partially in response to the indicator beingselected by the first viewer, displaying an unfiltered plurality ofactivities. In other embodiments, the displayed activities associatedwith the one or more of the filtered electronic data records compriseactivities that are associated with other viewers of the particularmultimedia content that are considered high influencers with respect tothe particular multimedia content. In other embodiments, the displayedactivities associated with the one or more of the filtered electronicdata records comprise activities that are associated with other viewersof the particular multimedia content that the viewer has elected tofollow. In still other embodiments, filtering the plurality ofelectronic data records based at least in part on the one or moreactivity display criteria further comprises limiting the number ofactivities that are displayed for a particular segment of the multimediacontent to a predefined threshold value.

In another embodiment an electronic data processing system forelectronically managing a conversation that is linked to one or moresegments of multimedia content divided into a plurality of segments, andfor throttling the displayed conversation based on various criteriacomprises (1) one or more processors, (2) one or more databases coupledto the one or more processors, and (3) a plurality of electronic datarecords stored in the one or more databases. Each one of the pluralityof electronic data records (a) are linked to one or more segments ofmultimedia content, (b) corresponds to an activity submitted by a viewerof the multimedia content, (c) comprises an identifier for themultimedia content, (d) comprises an identifier for the viewer whosubmitted the activity, and (e) comprises one or more data fieldsselected from a group consisting of (i) text associated with theactivity when the activity is a comment submitted by the viewer, (ii) atime stamp for when the activity was initiated, (iii) a time stamp forwhen the activity was submitted, (iv) the number of words in the textassociated with the activity, (v) a reply count, (vi) an activity count,(vii) a question flag, (viii) an answer flag, (ix) an activity type, and(xi) an identifier for a related comment. In various embodiments, in theone or more processors are configured for determining one or morefiltering criteria associated with a first viewer, at least partially inresponse to determining the one or more filtering criteria for the firstviewer, identifying one or more of the plurality of electronic datarecords that are associated with segments of the multimedia content andthat satisfy the one or more filtering criteria, and displaying, on adisplay interface, an activity associated with each one of theidentified one or more of the plurality of electronic data records as arespective segment of the multimedia content is displayed to the firstviewer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments of an activity Management System and Method aredescribed below. In the course of this description, reference will bemade to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn toscale and wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts an activity Management System according to particularembodiments.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a computer (such as the ActivityManagement Server 110, or one or more remote computing devices 130, orthe Media Server) that is suitable for use in various embodiments of theActivity Management System shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary flow chart of operations that make up anactivity Management Module, according to particular embodiments, whichthe Activity Management System may be configured to execute.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary flow chart of operations that make up aMultimedia activity Mapping Module, according to particular embodiments,which the Activity Management System may be configured to execute.

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary flow chart of operations that make up aScoring Module, according to particular embodiments, which the ActivityManagement System may be configured to execute.

FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary flow chart of operations that make up aMultimedia activity Management Module, according to particularembodiments, which the Activity Management System may be configured toexecute.

FIG. 7 depicts an exemplary flow chart of operations that make up aMultimedia Branching Module, according to particular embodiments, whichthe Activity Management System may be configured to execute.

FIG. 8 depicts a diagram of an exemplary organization structure for theActivity Management System.

FIG. 9 depicts an exemplary screen display and graphical user interface(GUI) according to various embodiments of the system, from which anorganizational administrator can add a group to the organization.

FIG. 10 depicts an exemplary screen display and GUI according to variousembodiments of the system, which may display information associated withthe system or enable access to or interaction with the system by one ormore users.

FIGS. 11, 12A, and 12B depict exemplary screen displays and GUIsaccording to various embodiments of the system, which may enable acontent creator to create content or view information related to thecontent created of the content creator.

FIG. 13. depicts an exemplary screen display and GUIs according tovarious embodiments of the system, which a viewer may experience whenaccessing particular multimedia content.

FIG. 14. depicts an exemplary screen display and GUIs according tovarious embodiments of the system, which provides an overview of aparticular lesson to a user.

FIGS. 15-23B depict exemplary screen displays and GUIs according tovarious embodiments of the system, which may display and enable users toview and provide activities and/or reactions to multimedia contentpresented to the user where the system and the user are enabled tomodify the activities and/or reactions presented to the user.

FIGS. 24-31 depict exemplary screen displays and GUIs according tovarious embodiments of the system, which may display components andembodiments of the facilitator interface.

FIG. 32 an exemplary screen display on a mobile computing device, whichmay, for example, facilitate transmission of the one or more alerts to asuitable individual.

FIGS. 33A-33B depict exemplary screen displays and GUIs according tovarious embodiments of the system, which may display components andembodiments for displaying system scores for influence, sentiment,engagement and facilitator effectiveness.

FIGS. 34A-34B depict exemplary screen displays and GUIs according tovarious embodiments of the system, which may display an alternateembodiment of the graphical user interface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS EMBODIMENTS

Various embodiments will now be described in greater detail. It shouldbe understood that the invention may be embodied in many different formsand should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forthherein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosurewill be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of theinvention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to likeelements throughout.

Exemplary Technical Platforms

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the relevant field, the presentsystems may be, for example, embodied as a computer system, a method, ora computer program product. Accordingly, various embodiments may takethe form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely softwareembodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects.Furthermore, particular embodiments may take the form of a computerprogram product stored on a computer-readable storage medium havingcomputer-readable instructions (e.g., software) embodied in the storagemedium. Various embodiments may take the form of web-implementedcomputer software. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may beutilized including, for example, hard disks, compact disks, DVDs,optical storage devices, and/or magnetic storage devices.

Various embodiments are described below with reference to block diagramsand flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatuses (e.g., systems), andcomputer program products. It should be understood that each block ofthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, and combinations ofblocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively,can be implemented by a computer executing computer programinstructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded onto ageneral purpose computer, special purpose computer, or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such thatthe instructions which execute on the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus to create means for implementing the functionsspecified in the flowchart block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memoryproduce an article of manufacture that is configured for implementingthe function specified in the flowchart block or blocks. The computerprogram instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operationalsteps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus toproduce a computer implemented process such that the instructions thatexecute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide stepsfor implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block orblocks.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrationssupport combinations of mechanisms for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instructions for performing the specified functions. Itshould also be understood that each block of the block diagrams andflowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the blockdiagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by specialpurpose hardware-based computer systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware andother hardware executing appropriate computer instructions.

Example System Architecture

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an activity Management System 100 accordingto a particular embodiment. In some embodiments, the Activity ManagementSystem 100 is configured to provide a platform for users to viewmultimedia content (e.g., audio files, video files, documents, etc.).The system may be further configured to enable content creators toprovide multimedia content that is accessible to members of anorganization and/or various groups. In particular embodiments, theActivity Management System 100 is configured to enable consumers of themultimedia content (e.g., end users, members of groups, members of theorganization, etc.) to provide asynchronous conversations associatedwith the multimedia content from which the system is configured toderive viewer scoring and quality scoring for a particular piece ofmultimedia, for an overall group, for a multiple pieces of multimediathat are put together to form a course or lesson that is available tomembers within a particular group, etc.

As may be understood from FIG. 1, the Activity Management System 100includes one or more computer networks 115, an activity ManagementServer 110, a Multimedia Server 120, one or more remote computingdevices 130 (e.g., a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer,smartphone, etc.), and one or more databases 140. In particularembodiments, the one or more computer networks 115 facilitatecommunication between the Activity Management Server 110, MultimediaServer 120, one or more remote computing devices 130 (e.g., a desktopcomputer, laptop computer, tablet computer, etc.), and one or moredatabases 140.

The one or more computer networks 115 may include any of a variety oftypes of wired or wireless computer networks such as the Internet, aprivate intranet, a public switch telephone network (PSTN), or any othertype of network. The communication link between the Activity ManagementServer 110 and one or more databases 140 may be, for example,implemented via a Local Area Network (LAN) or via the Internet.

FIG. 2 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a computer 200 thatcan be used within the Activity Management System 100, for example, as aclient computer (e.g., one or more remote computing devices 130 shown inFIG. 1), or as a server computer (e.g., Activity Management Server 110or Multimedia Server 120 shown in FIG. 1). In particular embodiments,the computer 200 may be suitable for use as a computer within thecontext of the Activity Management System 100 that is configured tofacilitate oversight of sentiment determination within the system.

In particular embodiments, the computer 200 may be connected (e.g.,networked) to other computers in a LAN, an intranet, an extranet, and/orthe Internet. As noted above, the computer 200 may operate in thecapacity of a server or a client computer in a client-server networkenvironment, or as a peer computer in a peer-to-peer (or distributed)network environment. The computer 200 may be a personal computer (PC), atablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), acellular telephone, a web appliance, a server, a network router, aswitch or bridge, or any other computer capable of executing a set ofinstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that computer. Further, while only a single computer is illustrated,the term “computer” shall also be taken to include any collection ofcomputers that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets)of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

An exemplary computer 200 includes a processing device 202, a mainmemory 204 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) or Rambus DRAM(RDRAM), etc.), static memory 206 (e.g., flash memory, static randomaccess memory (SRAM), etc.), and a data storage device 218, whichcommunicate with each other via a bus 232.

The processing device 202 represents one or more general-purposeprocessing devices such as a microprocessor, a central processing unit,or the like. More particularly, the processing device 202 may be acomplex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instructionword (VLIW) microprocessor, or processor implementing other instructionsets, or processors implementing a combination of instruction sets. Theprocessing device 202 may also be one or more special-purpose processingdevices such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP),network processor, or the like. The processing device 202 may beconfigured to execute processing logic 226 for performing variousoperations and steps discussed herein.

The computer 120 may further include a network interface device 208. Thecomputer 200 also may include a video display unit 210 (e.g., a liquidcrystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), an alphanumericinput device 212 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 214 (e.g.,a mouse), and a signal generation device 216 (e.g., a speaker).

The data storage device 218 may include a non-transitorycomputer-accessible storage medium 230 (also known as a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium or a non-transitory computer-readablemedium) on which is stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g.,software instructions 222) embodying any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The software instructions222 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within mainmemory 204 and/or within processing device 202 during execution thereofby computer 200—main memory 204 and processing device 202 alsoconstituting computer-accessible storage media. The softwareinstructions 222 may further be transmitted or received over a network115 via network interface device 208.

While the computer-accessible storage medium 230 is shown in anexemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term“computer-accessible storage medium” should be understood to include asingle medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributeddatabase, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one ormore sets of instructions. The term “computer-accessible storage medium”should also be understood to include any medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by thecomputer and that cause the computer to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the present invention. The term “computer-accessiblestorage medium” should accordingly be understood to include, but not belimited to, solid-state memories, optical and magnetic media, etc.

Overview

An activity Management System, according to particular embodiments, isconfigured to provide a platform in which viewers may access multimediacontent (e.g., one or more videos files, audio files, document files,image files, etc.). In various embodiments, particular viewers may bemembers of one or more organization, group, social networks, etc. thatexist within the system. In other embodiments viewers do not need to bemembers of the system.

The Activity Management System is operable to present viewers withmultimedia content (e.g., video, document, presentation, etc.) where themultimedia content is divided in to segments (e.g., time periods ofvideo content, location coordinates of a document, individual slides ofa slideshow, etc.). While a user is viewing or interacting withmultimedia content, the user can provide one or more activities (e.g.,comments, questions, replies, reactions, etc.) within a conversationarea of a graphical user interface.

The Activity Management System is operable to electronically link theactivity provided by (e.g., submitted by, or associated with) the userwith the particular segment of multimedia content in which the activitywas captured by the system. For example, if the multimedia content werea video, when a first user provides a first activity in the video at tenseconds, then the user's activity may be electronically linked to thatparticular segment of the video. In turn, when the same user or adifferent user views the multimedia content at a later time, the videowill display the first user's activity when the multimedia presents thesegment that is electronically linked to the first user's activity(i.e., ten seconds into the video). The user that watches the video at alater time can also provide activities or reactions to the first user'sactivities, as further described below. The Activity Management Systemis also operable to electronically link one or more activitiesassociated with the user to one or more particular segments ofmultimedia content to which the activity is associated. For example, ifthe user is viewing the multimedia content and the user interface losesfocus because the user clicked on a browser window to search theinternet, the system will link the loss of focus to the one or moresegments being viewed during the loss of focus.

The Activity Management System is also operable to provide a segmentdisplay for displaying a representation of each of the one or moresegments of the multimedia content. Representations may be provided atpoints on the segment display that correspond to segments of themultimedia content associated with discussions among one or more users.Additionally, survey questions may be included along with particularsegments of the multimedia content.

The Activity Management System also enables facilitators to provide andcreate multimedia content (e.g., videos, courses, lessons withincourses, text files, slideshows, presentations, etc.) for viewers. Thesystem enables facilitators to organize content for one or more groupsof users. The facilitator may be enabled to see additional informationregarding how particular users engage with the multimedia content. Forexample, the facilitator may be enabled to determine that a particularviewer is confused with respect to certain segments of the multimediacontent.

The system is operable to display or provide one or more activities to aviewer that views the multimedia content after the one or moreactivities were made. This viewer is also enabled to provide activitieswith regard to the multimedia content. For example, the system mayreceive one or more activities, as previously described, from a firstuser while the user is viewing a video, and in turn the system mayassociate each activity from the first user with the particular videosegment, as described above, in which it was provided. Further, thesystem may store each association in a database, and when a second userselects to view the video at a later time, the system will display theactivities of the first user at the time that its associated segment ofthe multimedia is presented to a second user (which may be the firstuser viewing the multimedia content at a later time). Moreover, thesecond user can also provide activities with regard to the multimediacontent, and when a current user (e.g., the first user, the second user,or a different user) views the multimedia content at a time after thesecond user provided their activities, the system will display theactivities of the first user and the second user at the time that itsassociated segment of the multimedia is presented to the current user.

The system is also configured to determine a sentiment score forparticular multimedia content, one or more segments of a particularmultimedia content, a viewer, a group, or an organization, among others.The sentiment score may, for example, be related to determining ageneral mood (e.g., confused, happy, bored) of one or more viewers whenviewing one or more particular segments of multimedia content. In turn,the sentiment score information may be provided to a facilitator orcontent creator to provide feedback on their content or enable them toupdate or improve particular segments of their multimedia content. Forexample, the system may store electronic data records that indicateviewer's activities with respect to multimedia segments provided to theviewers. The system may then calculate a sentiment value for eachactivity found in a respective electronic record. For example, when asurvey questionnaire is presented, each potential answer of the surveyquestionnaire may be preassigned a sentiment value. Additionally, eachtype of reaction may have a corresponding predefined sentiment valueassigned. In turn, the system is enabled to calculate a sentiment scorefor particular segments of multimedia content or for one or moreparticular viewers in relation to the multimedia content.

Further, the system may be configured to provide an alert to one or moreindividuals when a second activity is received by the system that isprovided in reply to a first activity. For example, a first user mayprovide an activity in the form of a question that is associated with aparticular segment of a video. In turn, the first user or anotherindividual (e.g., the facilitator) may be provided with an alert (e.g.,via a mobile computing application) when a user provides a reply to thefirst activity (i.e., the first user's question in the example).Additionally, after being provided with the alert, the system may enablethe first user or other individual to view the reply to the firstactivity without being required to view the video (or other multimediacontent) associated with the first activity. Further, the system maygenerate a graphic display (e.g., a visual representation) of theplurality of stored activities for the piece of multimedia, and the usermay be enabled to filter the graphic display based on terms, segments,and/or particular viewers. Additionally, the system may throttle orotherwise limit the number of activities a given user may be presentedwith based on a number of activities received per segment, or the user'srelationship or connection to the individuals providing activities(e.g., a social network connection), among others.

Moreover, the system may also be configured to automatically determinewhich sequences of a piece of multimedia content to display to a viewerand which sequences to skip, based on for example, a user's engagementscore with the piece of multimedia content, or a sentiment scoreassociated with the content, among others. For example, if a user ispresented with a video, and with respect to one or more sequence of thevideo, the user has a low engagement score, the user is asking a lot ofquestions, or the user has struggled understanding that type of sequencein the past, among others, then the system may indicate the particularone or more sequences. In response, the system may add one or moreadditional pieces of multimedia (e.g., one or more sequences from one ormore additional pieces of multimedia), or link to one or more additionalpieces of multimedia to provide to the viewer.

In various embodiments, the Activity Management System 100 may beimplemented to create synchronous or asynchronous conversations whereineach activity of the conversation is linked to respective segment ofmultimedia that makes up the multimedia content. For purposes of thisdisclosure, the term “multimedia content” should be broadly construed tomean any and all types of video files (e.g., standard video, 3D video,immersive video, spherical video, etc.), audio files, document files(e.g., word processing documents, spreadsheet documents, presentationdocuments, PDF documents, drawing documents, and any other suitabletypes of documents), image files, etc.

For purposes of this disclosure, the term “segment” should be broadlyconstrued to mean dividing the multimedia in any suitable manner. Forexample, video content may be segmented by one or more of (1) discretetime segments (e.g., each second, each tenth of a second, by one or morevideo frames, etc.), (2) discrete time period segments (e.g., every 5seconds), (3) location segments (e.g., by one or more of (a) x, y,and/or z-coordinate space, (b) by page, (c) by paragraph, (d) by linenumber, (e) by word, (f) by letter, (g) by pixel location, (h) etc.) orby any other suitable segmentation of the multimedia content.

Additionally, the term “activity” as used in this disclosure, shouldbroadly be interpreted to include, for example: (1) one or more freeform text comments (e.g., typed or otherwise provided by the firstuser); (2) one or more video comments (e.g., one or more videos recordedby the first user, one or more links to one or more videos, or any othersuitable video comment); (3) one or more audio comments (e.g., one ormore audio comments record by the first user, a link to one or moreaudio comments, or any other suitable audio comment; (4) one or moreimage comments (e.g., one or more uploaded images; one or more links toone or more images; one or more images created by the first user, etc.),which may include, for example, one or more graphics interchange format(GIF) images: (5) one or more predefined comments (e.g., one or morepredefined text comments, one or more predefined image comments, one ormore predefined video comments, one or more predefined audio comments,etc.); (6) one or more emoticons (e.g., one or more smilies, one or moreemoticons, one or more ideograms, etc.), which may, for example,comprise one or more predefined emoticons and/or one or moreuser-submitted emoticons; (7) an initial comment made by a viewer withregard to multimedia being viewed by the viewer, (8) a questionsubmitted by a viewer regarding the content of multimedia being viewedby the viewer, (9) a reaction (e.g., a predefined comment that expressesa viewer's sentiment such as like, dislike, agree, disagree, confusion,anger, etc.) to multimedia being viewed by the viewer, (10) a reply inthe form of an comment, question or reaction to one or more comments,questions or reactions submitted by a prior viewer of the multimediacontent, (11) one or more user activities when they are interacting withthe video content including, but not limited to, mouse and/or touchevents (e.g., mouse is moving, not moved, etc.), content viewing events(e.g., pausing, seeking, rewinding, stopping, playing the video content,etc.), user interface changes (e.g., loss of focus, resizing the userinterface, muting the client device, etc.), change of orientation of theclient device on which the user interface is being display, and/or (12)any other suitable viewer comment, activity, type of activity,combination of activities, or combination of activity types.

Finally, the term “user” as used in the present disclosure should bebroadly interpreted to include any one or more of (1) content creators,(2) organizations, (3) facilitators, (4) groups of viewers, (5)individual viewers, (6) advertisers, and/or (7) other businesses orindividuals associated with multimedia content as presented herein.

Exemplary embodiments of the Activity Management System 100 arediscussed more fully below.

Exemplary System Platform

Various embodiments of an Activity Management System 100 may beimplemented in the context of any suitable system (e.g., a mobilecomputing system, a desktop computing system, etc.) that allows users(e.g., content creators, organizations and their end users (e.g.,employees, members, etc.), facilitators (e.g., users that facilitate theviewing of one or more pieces of multimedia content by answeringquestions and ensuring that viewer questions, activities or concerns areaddressed), advertisers, and others associated with multimedia content)to create asynchronous conversations between consumers of the multimediacontent so that the users of the system can facilitate collaborativeexperiences when consuming the multimedia content.

For example, a business may want to have their sales staff take a courseon selling. In various embodiments, the Activity Management System 100is configured to provide a platform in which the business may enableaccess to content (e.g., courses) to one or more end users (e.g., salesstaff). In various embodiments, the system comprises a plurality oforganizations, each having its own end users. In various embodiments,particular end users may be members of more than one organization withinthe system. In various embodiments, each end user may have a uniquelogin to the system for each organization of which they are a member. Inother embodiments, each particular user may utilize a universal systemlogin to access each organization of which they are a member.

Advantages of the Activity Management System 100 described hereininclude, but are not limited to, the linking of conversations andactivities to segments of multimedia content being viewed. For example,the Activity Management System 100 allows for collaborative remotelearning by building a conversation around the viewing of (1) a livestreamed event (e.g., multimedia content), (2) a time-shifted livestreamed event, or (3) prerecorded multimedia content. In variousembodiments, activities that are submitted during live streaming of theevent are linked to the relevant segments of the event associated withthe activity. The activities form a live conversation between at leasttwo participants of the event (e.g., two viewers, a viewer and apresenter, a viewer and a facilitator of the live event, etc.).Moreover, when a viewer views the event at a time after the livestreaming of the event (e.g., time shifted) the viewer can participatein an asynchronous conversation that produces a collaborative viewingexperience for the viewer. If the later viewer submits activity (e.g.,comments, reactions, replies to prior comments, etc.) participants ofthe live streaming event can be notified of later activities and reviewand respond to the later submitted activities, as described in greaterdetail below. Other advantages of the Activity Management System 100include, but are not limited to, providing the opportunity for remoteinteractive learning, remote interactive learning that can be conductedby the viewer at their own pace, the ability of content creators toobtain feedback on multimedia content through asynchronousconversations, etc.

FIG. 8 depicts an exemplary organization structure of users according toa particular embodiment. As may be understood from FIG. 8, anorganization may comprise one or more end users that are managed by theorganization. An organization may, for example, add users, remove users,etc. The organization may further comprise one or more groups (e.g.,sales staff, marketing staff, engineers, etc.) that, in variousembodiments, are managed by the organization. In particular embodiments,the organization may include a plurality of groups to which one or moreend users may be assigned.

FIG. 9 depicts a user interface 902 from which an organizationaladministrator can add a group to the organization. The organizationaladministrator may, for example, provide a group name and registrationdates via the interface. The system may then, in response to receipt ofa new group name and registration dates: (1) start a new group bearingthe group name; and (2) make the group available for end users that aremembers of the organization during a registration period. In variousembodiments, each of the one or more end users may be assigned to, orregistered for, the one or more groups within the organization to whichthey belong. In particular embodiments, each particular one of the oneor more groups may be associated with multimedia content (e.g., mediacontent such as one or more presentations, one or more videos, one ormore questionnaires, one or more documents, one or more images, etc.)that form courses, lessons, teaching material, etc. that each respectiveend user assigned to the particular group may access. In variousembodiments, the multimedia content is a course that comprises one ormore lessons. In particular further embodiments, the system isconfigured to enable lesson creation, for example, via a suitable userinterface, by enabling a content creator (e.g., lesson creator) toupload a created course or one or more pieces of content for a createdlesson, etc.

In various embodiments, the system is configured to provide acollaborative platform for members of a particular group or organizationin which, for example: (1) the system facilitates group conversationsbetween or among group members; (2) the system enables collaborationbetween/among users within the group (e.g., create a synchronous and/orasynchronous conversation that is linked to the multimedia content); (3)the system tracks activity performed by each member of the group andmakes this activity data available to other members of the group (e.g.,by displaying which members of the group have viewed particular content,displaying activities left by other members of the group for particularpieces of content, the sentiment of each viewer, how engaged a viewer iswith the multimedia content, how one viewer influences another viewer,etc.); (4) the system enables collaboration between end users of a firstgroup that are subscribed to particular content (e.g., lessons) withother end uses that are subscribed to the same content but not part ofthe first group; (5) etc.

In various embodiments, the system is configured to arrange particularmedia content into courses or lessons (e.g., for consumption by one ormore particular groups). In various embodiments, the system isconfigured to enable a content creator to organize course content (e.g.,to organize various pieces of multimedia content in a particular order)for consumption by the one or more end users in the group. FIG. 10 is anexemplary user interface that depicts three groups 1002, 1004, 1006 thathave access to a particular course called “Your Chemex and You.” In someimplementations, the information provided in the user interface may onlybe provided to the content creator, and the one or more end users ineach group may not be enabled to access the information provided in theuser interface. As shown in this figure, the user interface may includeinformation for the content (e.g., course) that includes the groupssubscribed to or signed up for the content, a number of users in eachgroup, the type of group (e.g., private or public), whether registrationfor the group is open or closed, the status of the group, etc.

FIGS. 24, 28, 29, 30 and 31 depicts various user interface that can beused by a facilitator of the multimedia content. For example, FIG. 24specifically depicts a user interface 2400 that shows the courses (e.g.,sequences) to which the facilitator is assigned. The interface 2400tells the facilitator the name of the course, the groups assigned to thecourse, how many new interactions have occurred in a conversationassociated with the group, if there are any open questions and thenumber of new quizzes. The user interface 2800 shown in FIG. 28 providesthe facilitator of a course with information that is specific to lessons(e.g., 2805 and 2810) in a course. Some information includes, but is notlimited to, the number of new comments, new replies, new questions, thenumber and type of reactions and scores (influence scores 2815 andengagement scores 2820) associated with the lesson. The user interface2900 depicted in FIG. 9 provides a facilitator with detailed informationabout open questions 2905, unread discussion replies 2910, unreadcomments, 2915 and new quiz results 2920. The user interface 3000 shownin FIG. 30 provides a facilitator with specific user information for allusers assigned to a particular multimedia content. The user interface3000 provides a facilitator with each user's name 3010, the date thejoined 3015, the progress 3020 that they have made through theparticular multimedia content, the current section 3025 they are in, thetime 3030 of their last activity, the user's engagement score 3035 andinfluence score 3040 for the particular multimedia content. Finally,user interface 3100 of FIG. 31 provides the facilitator with a summaryof quiz questions (e.g., 3105 and 3110) and the related answers receivedby the system. In some embodiments, the user interface 3100 will notifythe facilitator of the number of answers 3115 received for questionswith free form text answers 3105 and a distribution 3120 for questions3110 with predefined answers. For questions with free form text answers3105, the system may also provide a summary 3125 of keywords most oftenfound in the answers.

FIG. 11 depicts a user interface via which a content creator may viewinformation related to a number of total users 1102 signed up forcourses offered by the content creator, a number of total number oforganizations 1104 that are subscribed to at least one of the creator'scourses, a number of courses made available by the particular contentcreator 1106, etc. The user interface further shows changes in thenumber of users and organizations over time. FIG. 12A depicts a userinterface 1202 via which a content creator may create a new lesson(e.g., a sequence) by selecting a “create” button 1204, where the newlesson may be included in a course. As shown in FIG. 12B, the contentcreator can provide, via a “create new sequence” interface 1206, asequence name and a sequence description, etc. In response to a contentcreator providing new sequence information via the user interface, thesystem may be configured to create a new lesson having the providedattributes, and for example, store the lesson in memory.

FIG. 13 depicts a user interface according to a particular embodiment,which a viewer may experience when accessing particular multimediacontent (e.g., a course entitled Your Chemex and You). As shown in thisfigure, the course may be broken into lesson (e.g., 1. Weighing andmeasuring: Proper use of the electronic scale 1302 . . . 5. Pourovertechniques using the Bonavita variable Temperature Kettle 1304, etc.).As may be understood from this figure, an end user (e.g., a viewer) mayselect a particular lesson from the course in order to view the lesson'scontent, which may include, for example, one or more pieces ofmultimedia content such as one or more videos, one or morepresentations, one or more documents, one or more images, one or morequizzes, one or more questionnaires, one or more webpages, etc. Invarious embodiments, the system is configured to mark activities thatcan be read, visited or answered as completed 1306 (e.g., by greying outactivities that the user has already completed as part of the lesson, bychanging the indicator from “play”, “view” or “read” to “completed”, orby any other suitable method).

FIG. 14 depicts an interface 1400 for an overview of a particular lesson1402 (e.g., Weighing and measuring: Proper use of the electronic scale(from FIG. 9)) within an exemplary course (e.g., Your Chemex and You(from FIG. 10)). As shown in this figure, the overview contains adescription of the lesson 1404 and shows indicia 1406 that indicateactivities (e.g., play the video, go to the discussion board, etc.) thatmake up part of the lesson.

System Modules

Various aspects of the system's functionality may be executed by certainsystem modules, including an activity Management Module 300, aMultimedia Activity Mapping Module 400, a Sentiment Scoring Module 500,a Multimedia Activity Management Module 600, or Multimedia BranchingModule 700. These modules are discussed in greater detail below.Although these modules are presented as a series of steps, it should beunderstood in light of this disclosure that various embodiments of themodules described herein may perform the steps described below in anorder other than in which they are presented. In still otherembodiments, the module may omit certain steps described below. Invarious other embodiments, the module described herein may perform stepsin addition to those described in the various system modules.

Activity Management Module

Providing a First Graphical User Interface to a User on a Client Device

In particular embodiments, when executing the Activity Management Module300, the system begins, at Step 310, by providing a first graphical userinterface (e.g., graphical user interface 1500 (FIG. 15)) to a user(e.g., a first viewer) on a client device (e.g., the one or more remotecomputing devices 130). In various embodiments and referring to FIG. 15,the graphical user interface 1500 may comprise a media player 1510 forplaying the multimedia content, a segment display 1520 (e.g., a firstsegment display) for displaying a representation of each one of the oneor more segments of the multimedia content (e.g., a time line for videoor audio content, location information for documents, etc.) and aconversation area 1530 for displaying activities that are part of theconversation.

In various embodiments, the graphical user interface 1500 may be part ofa client application that runs on the client device 130. In otherembodiments, the graphical user interface 1500 may be a client-serversoftware application in which the graphical user interface runs in a webbrowser. In still other embodiments, the graphical user interface 1500may be a browser plugin that acts as an add-on to a web browser andgives the browser additional functionality.

In particular embodiments where the activity management system 100manages activities related to third party multimedia content (e.g.,YouTube® videos, etc.), the graphical user interface 1500 may by in theform of browser plugin that creates a graphical user interface overlayfor a webpage so that multimedia can be played by a third party mediaplayer, where the graphical user interface containing the segmentdisplay 1520, the conversation area 1530 and other features of thegraphical user interface 1500 overlay on the third party media player.In these embodiments, the segment display 1520 contains representationsof segments that are related to (e.g., the same as) the nativesegmenting of the third party multimedia content. Continuing with theYouTube® video example, the segment display contains a segmentrepresentation (e.g., a time line display) that matches the time linedisplay of the YouTube® video. In other embodiments, the segment display1520 may be different as compared to native segment display. Forexample, the segment display for the graphical user interface may showdiscrete time period representations of, for example, 5 seconds, whilethe native time line for the third party multimedia content is shown intenths of a second segments.

Presenting, at a Second Time that Occurs Before the First Time, aRepresentation of One or More Activities Received From Other Users

In particular embodiments, the system continues to Step 320 at which thesystem 100 prepopulates the conversation area 1530 and the segmentdisplay 1520 with one or more representations of activities that werereceived by the system prior to the time when the current viewer isviewing the multimedia content. In various embodiments, the one or moreactivities may comprise an activity made by a prior viewer, one or morecomments, one or more questions, one or more discussions, one or morereactions selected from a group of emoticons 1540 consisting of a smileyface 1541 to convey sentiment of agreement, an annoyed face 1542 toconvey the sentiment of disagreement, a sad face 1543 to convey thesentiment of dislike, a surprised face 1544 to convey the sentiment ofsurprise, a confused faced 1545 to convey the sentiment of confusion,and a heart 1546 to convey the sentiment of liking something, one ormore replies, one or more discussions, or any other suitablecommunications that can be part of a conversation. It should beunderstood that the reactions are predefined activities that the viewermay select and submit while watching the multimedia content.

In various embodiments, and referring to FIG. 16, the activities thatare displayed in the conversation area 1530 are associated with one ormore segments of the multimedia content that is being displayed, waspreviously displayed or is about to be displayed, as indicated on thesegment display at point 1610. That is, the conversation area 1530 maybe populated with prior activities (e.g., comments and/or reactions)that were received by other viewers as the current viewer consumes themultimedia content so that the current viewer can view activities thatare related to one or more segments of the multimedia content that werejust viewed, being viewed or about to be viewed. It should be understoodthat the activities populating in the conversation area 1530 maycomprise one or more activities selected from a group consisting ofcomments, questions, replies to comments, replies to questions, andreactions to comments, questions and/or replies.

Additionally, in various embodiments, representations of reactions 1622,1624, among others, that were submitted by prior viewers are displayedalong the timeline proximate to a respective segment of the displaysegment that corresponds to the segment of the multimedia content thatwas being displayed when the prior viewer submitted the reaction. Inaddition to a representation of the reaction, the system may beconfigured to display an avatar associated with the viewer who submittedthe reaction. The avatar may include a picture of the viewer or anyother representation associated with the viewer. Finally, discussionsthat are associated with the multimedia content are displayed byrepresentations 1630, 1632, 1634, and 1636 at points on the segmentdisplay that correspond to (electronically linked) segments of themultimedia content associated with the discussions.

Receiving, at a First Time that Occurs After the Second Time, anActivity From the Current Viewer of the Multimedia Content

The system 100 continues at Step 330 by receiving, at a first time thatoccurs after a second time, an activity (e.g., the first activity) fromthe current viewer (e.g., the first viewer) of the multimedia content.In various embodiments, the activity may be an activity to themultimedia content that is currently being viewed by the viewer. Invarious embodiments, the activity may be a reply to another viewer'scomment, an activity submitted as part of a discussion, a question, areaction to the multimedia content, a reaction to another viewer'sactivity, a reaction to another viewer's reply, or any other suitablecommunication.

For example and referring to FIG. 17A, in various embodiments, theviewer may submit a reaction to the segment of the multimedia contentthat they are currently viewing by selecting a reaction emoticon from agroup of emoticons 1540. For example, if the viewer likes the messagethat is being conveyed by the currently viewed segment of the multimediacontent, the viewer selects the heart reaction emoticon 1546, and arepresentation 1710 of the heart is associated with a segment in thesegment display 1520 associated with current segment of multimediacontent being viewed. In addition to the representation of the reaction1710, an avatar 1720 may also be displayed so that the next viewer caneasily identify the viewer associated with a reaction.

If, instead, the viewer wants to submit a reaction to an activity thatwas made by a prior viewer, referring to FIG. 17B, the viewer can hovera cursor 1730 over a reaction icon 1732 associated with an activity1734, which causes a reaction menu 1736 to be displayed. The viewer maythen select a reaction emoticon to submit a reaction in response to aprior viewer's comment. Referring to FIG. 17C, a representation of areaction 1738 is then associated with the comment.

Referring to FIG. 18A, the user can submit an comment, question or replyto a prior comment or question by activating the comment box 1810 byclicking on it. Referring to FIG. 18B, the viewer selects, using adropdown menu 1820 whether the comment being submitted is a question oran comment by selecting a question menu selection 1830 or an commentmenu selection 1840. Referring to FIG. 18C, if the viewer selects theactivity menu selection 1840, the submission button 1850 indicates that,by selecting the submission button, the text will be submitted as ancomment associated with the multimedia content currently being viewed.In the alternative and referring to FIG. 18D, if the viewer insteadselected the question menu selection 1830, the submission button 1850would indicate that, by selecting the submission button the text wouldbe submitted as a question associated with the multimedia contentcurrently being viewed. Moreover and referring to FIG. 18E, thesubmitted question 1860 would be added to the conversation area 1530 andthe question may also comprise an indicia 1865 that makes it easy torecognize questions when a viewer scans the comments in the conversationarea 1530. In alternate embodiments, the system may have a single “post”button and the system may automatically parse comment and reply text andmark any comment or reply that includes a “?” as a question. In thisway, the viewer will not be required to select between an comment orquestion since the system automatically determines which comments arequestions.

Should the viewer wish to submit a reply as an comment to a priorviewer's comment, question or reply, referring to FIGS. 19A and 19B, theviewer only need to select the comment, question or reply that they wishto reply to (e.g., comment 1900) from the conversation area 1530, whichcause the comment box 1910 to become active and the submission button1920 to indicate that selecting the submission button would submit areply to the selected comment 1900. The viewer next types the text ofthe reply in the comment box 1910 and submits the reply. Referringparticularly to FIG. 19B, after selecting the submission button 1920,the reply comment 1930 is displayed in the conversation area with anindicia 1940 to indicate that the submitted comment is a reply toanother comment. The reply may also contain an avatar 1950 for theviewer that submitted the reply.

In various embodiments and referring to FIGS. 18C, 18D, 18E, 19A and20A-20B, when the viewer is posting an activity (e.g., a comment,question or reply) to a prior activity (e.g., an comment, question orreply) from another viewer, the viewer may enter free form text. Inaddition to the free form text, the viewer may also attach an audiofile, a video file, a document, an image file or any other suitableattachment to their comment by selecting an attachment button 1860 and1960, which allows the user to navigate to the file that they wish toattach and attach the file to the activity (e.g., an activity, questionor reply). The system 100 will then display the attached file as shownin graphical user interface 1500 presented in FIGS. 20A and 20B.

Referring to FIGS. 21A and 21B when the current segment of themultimedia content being displayed is electronically linked with arepresentation 1632 for a discussion associated with the segment display1520, a discussion indicator 2100 is shown in the graphical userinterface 1500. In various embodiments, the discussion indicator 2100 isshown in a collapsed orientation (FIG. 21A) to maximize the viewers viewof the multimedia content. Thus, if the viewer wishes to read or viewthe activities in the discussion, the viewer can select the discussionindicator, which will cause the discussion conversation area 2110 to bedisplayed. The discussion conversation area 2110 functions similarly tothe conversation area 1530 (FIG. 15) as described with reference toFIGS. 18A-20B.

Referring to FIGS. 22A-22B, the conversation area 1530 can becomecongested based on the number of activities (e.g., comments, questions,replies and reactions) that are submitted by viewers. Moreover,depending on the multimedia content, the number of viewers whoseactivities are included in the conversation area can vary depending onwhether the activities are limited by group, organization, a privategroup, the public, etc. In various embodiments the Activity ManagementSystem 100 can be configured to minimize congestion across the graphicaluser interface 1500. In various embodiments, the Activity ManagementSystem 100 may be configured to collapse multiple activities (e.g.,hide) to minimize the number of activities that are displayed to theviewer. For example, a hidden activity indicia 1550 (FIG. 15) can bedisplayed where multiple activities are hidden. Therefore, should theviewer wish to view the hidden activities, the viewer merely clicks thehidden activity indicia 1550 using a mouse or touch screen and a hiddenactivity display window 2200 opens to display the activities that werehidden.

In other embodiments and referring to FIG. 22B, the Activity ManagementSystem 100 may be configured to minimize the number of displayedactivities associated with one or more segments of the multimediacontent by analyzing the text associated with the activities (e.g.,comments, questions and/or replies) for the respective one or moresegments and identifying the activities that contain similar subjectmatter. In preferred embodiments, those activity having similar subjectmatter can be grouped and replaced with an indicia 2210, 2220 (e.g., acloud bubble) that contains a summary of the subject matter of thegrouped activities. In this way, the number of displayed activities inthe conversation area 1530 is minimized while still providing the viewerthe ability to examine all of the activities associated with the one ormore segments of the multimedia content. That is, if the viewer wasinterested in the steps that other viewers are using to weigh the bean,the viewer can click on the indicia 2210 labeled “my steps” and all ofthe hidden activities with similar subject matter would be displayed tothe viewer. Furthermore, multiple avatars for viewer's comments that arehidden by the comment indicia 2210, 2220 may also be displayed adjacentthe indicia.

In other embodiments, the Activity Management System 100 may beconfigured to allow the viewer to only view activities from particularviewers that are associated with the viewer. For example, the ActivityManagement System 100 may only show activities from viewers that are inthe same group as the viewer, activities from other viewers that are inthe viewers contact list, activities from other viewers that areassociated with the viewer through a social media platform (e.g.,friends on Facebook®, a connection on LinkedIn®, etc.) and/or otherviewers that the viewer manually sets up using the settings in theviewer's profile for the Activity Management System 100. It should beunderstood that activities from particular viewers can be shown orfiltered based on any number of suitable characteristics (e.g.,keywords, search terms, common interests, etc.) that are manuallyselected by the user, the organization that the user belongs to, or byany other suitable user of the system.

Referring to FIGS. 23A and 23B when the current segment of themultimedia content being displayed is electronically linked with arepresentation 1636 for a survey question associated with the segmentdisplay 1520, a survey question window 2300 is shown in the graphicaluser interface 1100. In various embodiments, the survey question window2300 allows the viewer to select a response to the survey. The viewercan mouse over the response choices and click (e.g., select) aparticular response that the viewer wishes to respond with to the surveyquestion, as shown in FIG. 23B, where the viewer selected the response“3.” Once the viewer submits their response, the viewer can close thesurvey question window 2300.

In various embodiments, the Activity Management System 100 may beconfigured to keep playing the multimedia content when the viewerinitiates the submission of an activity. For example, when the viewerhovers over the reaction 1710 (FIG. 17A) the multimedia contentcontinues to play (e.g., the video or audio file continues to play, thedocument or image file continues to be displayed, etc.). In otherembodiments, the Activity Management System 100 may be configured topause the multimedia content when the viewer initiates the submission ofan activity (e.g., a comment, question reaction, response to a surveyquestions, etc.). In this way, the viewer does not get distracted fromthe multimedia content while submitting an activity. In variousembodiments, playing or pausing the multimedia content during submissionof an activity, answering a survey question, or during any otherconversation activity associated with the system may be set by: (1) theviewer by adjusting the settings associated with the particular viewer,(2) the organization to which the viewer is a member, (3) thefacilitator assigned to the multimedia content, or (4) any other userassociated with the viewer or the multimedia content.

Electronically Linking the Received First Activity to a First Segment ofthe Multimedia Content

Continuing at Step 340, the system 100 electronically links the receivedactivity (e.g., the first activity) from the viewer to at least asegment of the multimedia content that the viewer was viewing when theysubmitted the received activity. Furthermore, if the activity was inresponse to one or more activities submitted by one or more otherviewers, the activity may also be electronically linked to the one ormore prior activities (e.g., a reply to an comment, a reaction to aprior comment, a reply to a comment in a discussion, etc.).Additionally, the received activity may also be electronically linked tothe viewer (e.g., one or more of the identity of the viewer, one or moregroups associated with the viewer, one or more organizations associatedwith the viewer, etc.).

Electronically Linking Received Activities to One or More Segments ofMultimedia Content

In preferred embodiments, the system 100 may electronically link thereceived activity to a segment of the multimedia content (e.g., an audioor video file) that was being viewed when the viewer began to enter thereceived activity. In preferred embodiments, the received activity iselectronically linked to the segment of the multimedia content using aunique identifier associated with the multimedia content. In variousembodiments, the received activity is electronically linked to themultimedia content using specific segment information for the segment ofthe multimedia content that was being viewed when the first activity wasreceived. In still other embodiments, the received activity iselectronically linked to the multimedia content using both the uniqueidentifier for the multimedia content and segment information for one ormore segments of the multimedia content associated with the activity.

In some embodiments, the system 100 may electronically link the receivedactivity to a segment of the multimedia content that is being viewedwhen the viewer begins to initiate (e.g., begins to type in a comment,hovers over the reaction bar, selects a prior comment, etc.) theactivity. In some embodiments, the system may electronically link thereceived activity to a segment of the multimedia content that is beingviewed when the viewer submits (e.g., clicks the submit button, etc.)the received activity. In still other embodiments, the system 100 mayelectronically link the received activity to one or more segments of themultimedia content that is positioned intermediate the segment ofmultimedia content being viewed when the viewer initiates the receivedactivity to the segment of multimedia content being viewed when theviewer submits the received activity (e.g., including the first and lastsegments, not including the first and last segments, only including someof the intermediate segments, including all of the intermediatesegments). In some embodiments, the system may electronically link thereceived activity to a segment of the multimedia content that is priorin time to a segment of the multimedia content being viewed either whenthe activity was initiated or when the activity was submitted. In thisway, the activity gets associated with a segment of the multimediacontent that likely motivated the viewer to initiate the activity, whichlikely passed in time by the time the viewer begins to initiate thesubmission of the activity.

In particular embodiments, the received activity (e.g., the firstactivity) may be linked to the multimedia content (e.g., a spatial videofile, a document, an image, etc.) based on a location segment of themultimedia content currently being viewed by the viewer (e.g., the firstviewer) when the activity was submitted. In some embodiments, the system100 may electronically link the received activity to one or morelocation segments associated with the multimedia content based on one ormore of an x, y, and z-coordinate system associated with the multimediacontent. In other embodiments, the system 100 may electronically linkthe received activity to one or more location segments associated withthe multimedia content based on one or more pages, one or moreparagraphs, one or more lines, words, characters, etc. associated withthe multimedia content.

Electronically Linking Received Activities to One or More Prior ReceivedActivities (e.g., Reply Comments)

In preferred embodiments, when the received activity (e.g., the firstactivity) is made in response to another viewer's prior activity (e.g.,one or more comments, one or more questions, one or more reactions, oneor more replies, one or more of the prior listed activities in adiscussion conversation, etc.), the received activity may also beelectronically linked to the prior activity, in addition to being linkedto the segment of the multimedia associated with the activity. In someembodiments, the received activity may be electronically linked to theprior activity by a unique identifier that is associated with the prioractivity. It should be understood that the received activity may belinked to the prior activity in any suitable manner that allows thesystem 100 to identify all activities that are linked with one another.

Electronically Linking Received Activities to the Viewer Submitting theActivity

In various embodiments, the received activity may also be electronicallylinked to the viewer submitting the activity based on one or more uniqueidentifiers (e.g., a viewer ID no., etc.) associated with the viewer.For example, an activity may be electronically linked with a viewerusing a unique identifier assigned to the viewer based on logininformation submitted by the viewer to system 100. Additionally, whenthe viewer is viewing the multimedia content as part of a group, theactivity may be electronically linked to the viewer by a unique groupidentifier. Furthermore, if the multimedia content was assigned to theviewer by an organization to which the viewer belongs, the activity maybe electronically linked to the viewer by a unique identifier assignedto the organization. In various embodiments where the actualidentification of the viewer is not known, but non-personal identifyinginformation is known (e.g., browser cookie information, geographicallocation information for the viewer, etc.) the non-personal identifyinginformation may be used to electronically link the viewer to theactivity.

Creating a First Electronic Record that Comprises One or More of theFirst Activity, a Multimedia Identifier for the Multimedia Content, aFirst Viewer Identifier, and a First Segment Identifier for the FirstSegment, and Digitally Storing the First Electronic Record

Continuing at Step 350, the Activity Management System 100 is configuredto create an electronic record for the received activity and store theelectronic record in the one or more databases 140 (FIG. 1). Theelectronic record may include one or more of a unique identifier or useridentifier, (e.g., one or more of a viewer identifier, a groupidentifier, an organization identifier, non-personal informationassociated with the viewer, etc.), a multimedia content identifier, oneor more segment and/or location information (e.g., a segment identifier,location coordinates, etc.), the contents of the activity (e.g., textdata, a predefined sentiment associated with the activity, an attachmentidentifier, a copy of the attachment, etc.), an identifier for a prioractivity if the received activity is a reply to a prior activity, andany other suitable information that allows the activity to beelectronically linked into a conversation associated with the multimediacontent being viewed when the activity was made. In various embodiments,the electronic record may include other fields for flag data (e.g., aflag indicating whether notification was sent to prior viewers of themultimedia content that a new activity has been added to theconversation associated with the multimedia content, as furtherdiscussed below).

In various embodiments, the electronic records for the activities mayall be stored in a single database table. In this way, the system 100,when receiving a request from a viewer to view multimedia content, cansearch the database table for all records containing the multimediacontent identifier. The system 100 may then filter the activities basedon any one or more of various information associated with the viewer.For example, if the viewer was assigned the multimedia content by anorganization, the system can filter all activities submitted by otherviewers that are not part of the organization. If the viewer is part ofa group under the organization, then the results of the prior filter canbe further filtered by a group identifier so that the conversationpresented in conjunction with the multimedia content only containsactivities from other viewers that are part of the group. Organizing allof the electronic records for the activities in a single database tablehelps to expedite the operation of the system 100 since filtering of theelectronic records can be accomplished in an efficient manner therebyreducing the number of operations performed by the system in creatingelectronic records and serving the conversations as the multimediacontent is presented to the viewer.

In other embodiments, the electronic records for a conversation may bestored in a database table assigned to a particular course. In thisconfiguration, when a viewer assigned to the course requests aparticular multimedia content from the course, all of the activitiesassociated with the particular multimedia content in the course may beserved to the graphical user interface as the multimedia content isplayed for the viewer. While such an arrangement requires more databasetables for the received activity, it reduces the time necessary tofilter the activities to be served to the user interface. It should beunderstood to one of skill in the art that the electronic records may bestored in any suitable manner to meet the requirements of variousconfigurations of the Activity Management System 100, all of which arecontemplated by the disclosure herein.

Presenting a First Representation of the First Activity on the FirstSegment Display in Association with a Point on the First Segment DisplayCorresponding to the First Segment of the Multimedia

At Step 360, activities received by the Activity Management System 100are added to the appropriate point in a conversation associated withmultimedia content. For example, in various embodiments when a receivedactivity (e.g., a question, comment or reaction) is associated with thecontent of the multimedia content being viewed by the viewer, theactivity may either be added to the conversation area 1530 (FIG. 15),after the last activity submitted for the segment of the multimediabeing viewed by the viewer, or a representation of the activity (e.g.,an emoticon reaction, etc.) may be associated with the segment beingviewed at a corresponding location on the segment display 1520. Inaddition, when an activity received (a comment, reaction, etc.) is areply to a prior activity (e.g., an comment, question, reply, etc.), theactivity or representation of the activity is inserted into theconversation area 1530, and an indicium links the new activity to theprior activity. In this way, a synchronous or asynchronous conversationmay be created around one or more segments of the multimedia content.

Multimedia Activity Mapping Module

In particular embodiments, a Multimedia Activity Mapping Module 400 isconfigured to: (1) receive one or more activities from one or more usersthat view (e.g., are viewing) a particular piece of multimedia (e.g., avideo, slideshow, PDF, or other suitable piece of multimedia such as anysuitable piece of multimedia described herein); (2) associate eachparticular activity with a particular segment of the piece of multimedia(e.g., a particular time segment of a video, audio file, slideshow,etc.; a particular location segment on an image, video, document, etc.;or any other suitable segment; (3) store the one or more activities; and(4) display, provide, or otherwise make the one or more activitiesavailable to a viewer or consumer of the multimedia that views orconsumes the multimedia after the one or more activities was made. Invarious embodiments, the system is configured to display or provide theone or more activities such that the system displays the one or moreactivities in association with each respective associated segment of themultimedia while the viewer is viewing the multimedia. In furtherembodiments, the system is configured to display (e.g., or provide fordisplay), the one or more activities such that the system displays theone or more activities in association with any associated otheractivities.

In particular embodiments, by electronically linking the one or moreactivities to a respective segment of the multimedia, the system mayenable a more contextual discussion of a particular segment (e.g.,timestamp, portion, etc.) of the multimedia, rather than limitingactivity and discussion generically to the multimedia as a whole. As maybe understood by one skilled in the art, in this way, a particular pieceof multimedia may comprise a plurality of activity threads eachelectronically linked to (e.g., associated with) different segments ofthe multimedia. In this way, the system may provide different viewersthat view or otherwise consume the multimedia at different times withsubstantially different user-submitted activities depending on, forexample: (1) how many comments have been submitted prior to the time atwhich the viewer is viewing the multimedia; (2) how many responses havebeen made to those comments; (3) which particular segments of themultimedia those comments have been directed toward, etc. By enablingviewers to provide activities directed toward particular segments of themultimedia and respond directly to activities made by other viewers thatrelate to particular segments, the system may be configured to simulateto a first user and a second user that are viewing the multimedia in atime-shifted, asynchronous manner (e.g., at different times) that theyare viewing the multimedia together and discussing different segments invirtually real time (even though they may be viewing the multimedia atdrastically different times).

Although various embodiments of the Multimedia Activity Mapping Module400 may be described below as relating to a single piece of multimedia,it should be understood that other embodiments may include a pluralityof pieces of multimedia, one more pieces of mixed media (e.g., includeone or more videos, one or more still images, one or more text files,etc.), or any other suitable combination or media or other content.

Identify a Plurality of Segments that Make Up the Piece of Multimedia

When executing the Multimedia Activity Mapping Module 400, the systembegins, at Step 410, by identifying a plurality of segments that make upa piece of multimedia. In various embodiments, the piece of multimediamay comprise, for example: (1) one or more videos; (2) one or morelessons; (3) one or more text files (e.g., such as one or more PDF orother documents; (4) one or more slideshows; (5) one or morepresentations; (6) one or more articles; (7) one or more questionnaires;(8) one or more webpages; and/or (9) any other suitable piece of media,content or other item that an individual may view, listen to, read, orotherwise consume or experience (e.g., via one or more of their fivesenses).

In various embodiments, the plurality of segments comprises a pluralityof distinct location segments that make up the piece of multimedia. Forexample, the piece of multimedia may define a coordinate system thatbreaks the piece of multimedia into a plurality of discrete locationsegments that each defines a particular portion of the piece ofmultimedia. The system may, for example, identify the plurality ofsegments as comprising a grid of location segments defined by thecoordinate system (e.g., with each location segment having an associatedrow and column number within the grid, having an ‘x’ and ‘y’ coordinatewithin the coordinate system, etc.). In some embodiments, the piece ofmultimedia comprises a piece of three-dimensional multimedia (e.g., a 3Dvideo). In such embodiments, the plurality of segments may be defined bya three dimensional coordinate system, with each particular locationsegment having an ‘x’, ‘y’, and ‘z’ coordinate that indicates theparticular location segment's location within the piece of multimedia.

As a particular example, a piece of multimedia comprising an image mayidentify a discrete number of location segments that make up the imagesuch that the image comprises a four segment by four segment grid oflocation segments (e.g., totally sixteen segments). Each segment may beidentified by number, by location (e.g., 1,3), etc.

In various embodiments, each particular location segment may have anysuitable shape (e.g., rectangular, square, circular, etc.) and anysuitable size (e.g., based on a height and width of the piece ofmultimedia, based on a resolution of a display of a computing deviceviewing the multimedia, etc.). In some embodiments, a particularlocation segment comprises a single pixel on a display screen displayingthe multimedia.

In particular embodiments, each particular segment may be defined, forexample, by a particular page, column, line, word, letter, sentence,paragraph, section, cell, etc. of a piece of multimedia (e.g., such as aspreadsheet, word processing document, presentation, PDF, etc.). Inother embodiments, each particular segment may be defined in any othersuitable manner.

In some embodiments, a particular piece of multimedia comprises one ormore location segments such that every portion of the particular pieceof multimedia comprises (e.g., is associated with) a particular portionof at least one of the one or more location segments. In variousembodiments, a particular point on a piece of multimedia may comprise aplurality of location segments. In still other embodiments, at least oneportion of the piece of multimedia does not comprise any locationsegments.

In particular other embodiments, the plurality of segments comprise aplurality of distinct time segments that make up the piece of mediacontent. In various embodiments in which the plurality of segmentscomprise a plurality of time segments, the piece of multimedia maycomprise, for example, a video, audio file, slideshow, or other piece ofmultimedia having a particular playtime. In some embodiments, eachparticular time segment may comprise a discrete time segment (e.g., aparticular time stamp of the piece of multimedia such as 3:15 for adiscrete time segment at 3 minutes, 15 seconds into the piece ofmultimedia).

In other embodiments in which the plurality of segments comprises aplurality of time segments, each of the plurality of time segments maycomprise a particular time slice of the complete runtime of the piece ofmultimedia. For example, each time segment may define a particular timerange of the piece of multimedia. A particular video may, for example,be broken into a plurality of time segments that each includes tensecond increments of the video. In the case of a 60 second video, forexample, the video would include six ten second time segments spanningfrom: (1) the 0 second mark to the 10 second mark; (2) the 10 secondmark to the 20 second mark; (3) the 20 second mark to the 30 secondmark; (4) the 30 second mark to the 40 second mark; (5) the 40 secondmark to the 50 second mark; and (6) the 50 second mark to the 60 secondmark.

In various embodiments in which the plurality of distinct time segmentscomprise a plurality of time slice segments, the plurality of timesegments may not overlap with any of the other time segments (e.g., afirst time segment may end at a time that immediately proceeds thebeginning time of the immediate next second time segment). In suchembodiments, a beginning and an end time of each particular segment maybe determined by a resolution of the multimedia (e.g., a number offrames per second) or a particular precision with which time isdelineated within the piece of multimedia (e.g., by the second,millisecond, etc.). In other embodiments, the plurality of time segmentsmay be substantially the same length. In other embodiments, theplurality of time segments may vary in length. For example, inparticular embodiments, each particular time segment may coincide with asection, chapter, scene, topic, or other suitable aspect of the piece ofmultimedia that delineates different portions of the piece ofmultimedia.

In particular embodiments, the plurality of segments may comprise aplurality of time segments and a plurality of location segments. Forexample, in particular embodiments, the plurality of segments mayinclude a time segment within a video in addition to a location segmentat the particular time segment. In such embodiments, a piece ofmultimedia may be broken down by a plurality of time segments where eachtime segment comprises a plurality of respective location segments. Asmay be understood in the light the above, a particular segment of aplurality of segments may point to both a time (e.g., a timestamp,timeframe, etc.) within a piece of multimedia, as well as a location inor portion of the piece of multimedia. In a particular video, forexample, that comprises six ten second time segments, the video mayfurther comprise sixteen location segments (e.g., in a four by fourgrid). In such an embodiment, the system may be configured to identifyboth the time and location segments, and associate any activities withone or both of the time and location segments as appropriate. Theassociation of activities with segments (e.g., time and/or locationsegments) will be discussed more fully below.

In particular embodiments identifying the plurality of segments thatmake up the piece of multimedia comprise retrieving one or morepredefined segments for the piece of multimedia. In particularembodiments, the system is configured to receive a breakdown of theplurality of time segments from a user (e.g., an owner and/or creator ofthe piece of multimedia, a facilitator of one or more lessons or coursesthat is utilizing the piece of multimedia in the context of the one ormore lessons or course, or any other suitable user). In suchembodiments, the system may be configured to store data related to thedefinition of the plurality of segments in memory and associate thestored data with the piece of multimedia.

In other embodiments, identifying the plurality of segments that make upthe piece of multimedia comprises substantially automatically breakingthe piece of multimedia into a plurality of segments. In someembodiments, the system is configured to break the piece of multimediadown into the plurality of segments based at least in part on a type ofthe piece of multimedia. In particular embodiments, for example, thesystem may be configured to break down video, audio, or slideshow mediacontent into a plurality of time segments. The system may do this basedon, for example, a length of the video, audio, number of slides in aslideshow, etc., or any other suitable factor. In other embodiments, forexample, the system may be configured to break down video, image, PDFfiles, articles and other content into a plurality of location segments.The system may break the multimedia into a plurality of locationsegments based on, for example, one or more dimensions of the piece ofmultimedia, a resolution of the piece of multimedia, a resolution of adisplay on which the piece of multimedia is being displayed, and/or anyother suitable factor.

Electronically Receive a First Activity at a First Time

Returning to step 420, the system is configured to electronicallyreceive a first activity at a first time. In various embodiments, thesystem is configured to receive the first activity via any suitable userinterface, for example, on a computing device associated with a firstuser. In some implementations, the first activity may be received viathe graphical user interface 1500 shown in FIG. 15. In some embodiments,the system is configured to receive the first activity from the firstuser. In various embodiments, the system is configured to provide asoftware application for installation on the computing device. Invarious embodiments, the software application is configured to display,on the computing device, a user interface for entering one or moreactivities (e.g., the graphical user interface 1500 shown and describedabove in the discussion of FIGS. 15-23B). In still other embodiments,the system is configured to receive the first activity from a browserplugin, via a suitable webpage, or in any other suitable manner.

In various embodiments, the system is configured to provide the softwareplugin or software application via a suitable centralized softwareapplication repository (e.g., the Apple App Store, Google Play store,etc.). In still other embodiments, the system is configured to providethe software plugin or software application for download via a suitablewebsite or server. In various embodiments, the system is configured toprovide the software plugin for installation on any suitable computingdevice (e.g., desktop computer, laptop computer, smartphone, tablet,etc.). In various embodiments, the software plugin is configured toserve as an add-on to an existing software application on the computingdevice (e.g., computing device 130), facilitate provision of one or moreactivities, and display of those activities in association withparticular segments of a piece of multimedia.

In other embodiments, the system comprises a stand-alone multimediaviewer configured to display, play, and/or otherwise provide access tothe piece of multimedia. In such embodiments, the system may beconfigured to receive one or more activities (e.g., the first activity)via the stand-alone multimedia viewer or other suitable softwareapplication, as described above.

In various embodiments, the first activity is an activity regarding thepiece of multimedia. In particular embodiments, the first activity is afirst activity regarding a particular segment of the piece of multimediafrom the plurality of segments identified at Step 410. In particularembodiments, the first activity comprises an identification of theparticular segment.

In particular embodiments, the first time is any suitable time duringwhich the first user is viewing, listening to, reading, or otherwiseconsuming the piece of multimedia. In other embodiments, the first timeis a time subsequent to the first user's consumption of the piece ofmultimedia (e.g., after the user has watched, read, etc. the piece ofmultimedia).

Process the First Activity by: (1) Digitally Storing the First Activityin Memory; (2) Mapping the First Activity to a First Segment of thePlurality of Segments Based at Least in Part on the First Activity; and(3) Electronically Associating the First Activity, the First Segment,and the Piece of Multimedia in Memory

Continuing to Step 430, the system is configured to process the firstactivity by: (1) digitally storing the first activity in memory; (2)mapping the first activity to a first segment of the plurality ofsegments based at least in part on the first activity; and (3)electronically associating (or electronically linking) the firstactivity, the first segment, and the piece of multimedia in memory. Inthis way, the system may, for example, be configured to provide forfuture retrieval of the first activity and identification of the pieceof media and the particular first segment of the piece of multimediawith which the first activity is associated.

In particular embodiments, the system is configured to digitally storethe first activity in memory. In some embodiments, the system isconfigured to store the first activity in a suitable database (e.g., theone or more databases 140 shown in FIG. 1). In other embodiments, thesystem is configured to store the first activity in any other suitablelocation (e.g., one or more remote servers, one or more conver4tionmanagement servers, etc.).

In particular embodiments, the system is configured to modify the pieceof multimedia to include the first activity. In such embodiments, thesystem may be configured to store the first activity along with thepiece of multimedia in a single file. In still other embodiments, thesystem is configured to store the first activity independent of thepiece of multimedia (e.g., such as in one or more embodiments in whichthe piece of media is hosted by one or more third parties).

In any embodiment described herein, the system may be further configuredto map the first activity to a first segment of the plurality ofsegments that make up the piece of multimedia. In particular, the systemmay be configured to map the first activity to the first segment basedat least in part on the first activity. For example, the system may beconfigured to map the first activity to the first segment based at leastin part on: (1) a time at which the first activity was received (e.g.,the first time); (2) a segment selected by the first user and providedas part of the first activity; (3) an elapsed time into the total lengthof a piece of multimedia having a particular runtime at which the userbegins submitting the first activity (e.g., a time corresponding to atime at which the user began typing the activity; moused over one ormore predefined activities; etc.); (4) an elapsed time into the totallength of a piece of multimedia having a particular runtime at which theuser submitted the first activity; (5) a location on the piece ofmultimedia that the user clicked or otherwise selected when submittingthe first activity (6) one or more contents of the first activity (e.g.,a reference to a particular video timestamp, a reference to a particularfeature, page number, line number, word, image, etc. in the piece ofmultimedia, etc.); and/or (6) any other suitable characteristic relatedto the first activity.

The system may, for example: (1) identify the first segment of theplurality of segments as being a segment with which the first activityis associated; and (2) map the first activity to the first segment inmemory. In particular embodiments, mapping the first activity to thefirst segment comprise associating, or electronically linking, the firstactivity with a first segment identifier (e.g., a unique identifier thatidentifies the first segment from the plurality of segments). Inparticular, the first segment identifier may include any suitableidentifier such as, for example a string, marker, pointer, timestamp,coordinate location, time range, tracker, etc.

The system may further be configured to electronically associate thefirst activity, the first segment (e.g., the first segment identifier),and the piece of multimedia in memory. In various embodiments, byassociating the first activity with both the piece of multimedia and thefirst segment, the system is configured to store the first activityremotely from the piece of multimedia and use the identifyinginformation associated with the first activity to display the firstactivity along with the piece of multimedia in association with thefirst segment, as discussed more fully below. In particular embodiments,this storage and association arrangement may enable the system toprovide the first activity for display along with the proper piece ofmultimedia at the proper segment, for example: (1) for a first activitymade on a piece of multimedia hosted by the system (e.g., in amultimedia viewer or player hosted by the system); (2) for a firstactivity made on a piece of multimedia hosted by a third party, on athird party site, or through a third party application (e.g., as in oneor more embodiments in which the system comprises one or more overlays);and/or (3) regardless of a manner in which the system received the firstactivity or the piece of multimedia is provided, stored, etc.

In such embodiments, the system is configured to improve a call time ofthe first activity when providing the first activity for display withthe piece of multimedia because the system may, for example, only needto store the first activity itself in addition to the associated segmentand multimedia identifiers (e.g., rather than storing the multimediaitself, which may include one or more video or other files of arelatively large size).

Electronically Receive a Second Activity at a Second Time

Continuing to Step 440, the system is configured to electronicallyreceive a second activity at a second time. In various embodiments, thesystem is configured to receive the second activity via any suitableuser interface, for example, on a computing device associated with asecond user. In some embodiments, the system is configured to receivethe second activity from the second user. In various embodiments, thesystem is configured to receive the second activity in any suitablemanner, such as in any manner described above with respect to the firstactivity at Step 420. In various embodiments, the second user is thefirst user.

In particular embodiments, as described above with regard to the firstactivity, the second activity may comprise, for example: (1) one or morefree form text comments (e.g., typed or otherwise provided by the seconduser); (2) one or more video comment (e.g., one or more videos recordedby the second user, one or more links to one or more videos, or anyother suitable video comment); (3) one or more audio comment (e.g., oneor more audio comment record by the second user, a link to one or moreaudio comment, or any other suitable audio comment; (4) one or moreimage comment (e.g., one or more uploaded images; one or more links toone or more images; one or more images created by the second user,etc.), which may include, for example, one or more graphics interchangeformat (GIF) images: (5) one or more predefined comment (e.g., one ormore predefined text comment, one or more predefined image comment, oneor more predefined video comment, one or more predefined audio comment,etc.); (6) one or more reactions (e.g., one or more smilies, one or moreemoticons, one or more ideograms, etc.), which may, for example,comprise one or more predefined emoticons and/or one or moreuser-submitted emoticons; and/or (7) any other suitable activity, typeof activity, combination of activities, or combination of activitytypes.

In various embodiments, the second activity is an activity regarding thepiece of multimedia. In particular embodiments, the second activity is asecond activity regarding a particular segment of the piece ofmultimedia from the plurality of segments identified at Step 410. Inparticular embodiments, the second activity comprises an identificationof the particular segment. In particular embodiments, the secondactivity is a response to the first activity (e.g., a reply to a firstcomment, a response to a question that makes up the first activity,etc.). In particular embodiments, the first activity and the secondactivity make up an activity thread. In other embodiments, the first andsecond activities define a conversation (e.g., between one or moreusers).

In particular embodiments, the second time is any suitable timecontemporaneous with a time in which the second user is viewing,listening to, reading, or otherwise consuming the piece of multimedia.In other embodiments, the second time is a time subsequent to the seconduser's consumption of the piece of multimedia (e.g., after the user haswatched, read, etc. the piece of multimedia). In some embodiments, thesecond time occurs after the first time (e.g., is a time later than thefirst time).

Process the Second Activity by: (1) Digitally Storing the SecondActivity in Memory; (2) Mapping the Second Activity to a Second Segmentof the Plurality of Segments Based at Least in Part on the SecondActivity; (3) Optionally Mapping the Second Activity to the FirstActivity; and (4) Electronically Associating the Second Activity, theSecond Segment, and the Piece of Multimedia in Memory

Continuing to Step 450, the system is configured to process the secondactivity by: (1) digitally storing the second activity in memory; (2)mapping the second activity to a second segment of the plurality ofsegments based at least in part on the second activity; (3) optionallymapping the second activity to the first activity; and (4)electronically associating the first activity, the first segment, andthe piece of multimedia in memory. In this way, the system may, forexample, be configured to provide future retrieval of the secondactivity and identification of the piece of media, and additionally, thesystem may be configured to provide the particular second segment of thepiece of multimedia with which the second activity is associated (e.g.,in addition to one or more additional activity with which the secondactivity may be associated).

In particular embodiments, the system is configured to digitally storethe second activity in memory. In some embodiments, the system isconfigured to store the second activity in a suitable database (e.g.,the one or more databases 140 shown in FIG. 1). In other embodiments,the system is configured to store the second activity in any othersuitable location (e.g., one or more remote servers, one or moreactivity management servers, etc.). In some embodiments, the system isconfigured to store the second activity in the same location as thefirst activity. In other embodiments, the system is configured to storethe first and second activities in one or more different locations.

In particular embodiments, the system is configured to modify the pieceof multimedia to include the second activity. In such embodiments, thesystem may be configured to store the second activity along with thepiece of multimedia in a single file. In still other embodiments, thesystem is configured to store the second activity independent of thepiece of multimedia (e.g., such as in one or more embodiments in whichthe piece of media is hosted by one or more third parties).

In any embodiment described herein, the system may be further configuredto map the second activity to a second segment of the plurality ofsegments that make up the piece of multimedia. In particular, the systemmay be configured to map the second activity to the second segment basedat least in part on the second activity. For example, the system may beconfigured to map the second activity to the second segment based atleast in part on: (1) a time at which the second activity was received(e.g., the second time); (2) a segment selected by the second user andprovided as part of the second activity; (3) an elapsed time into thetotal length of a piece of multimedia having a particular runtime atwhich the user begins submitting the second activity (e.g., a timecorresponding to a time at which the user began typing the activity;mouse over (e.g., placed a pointer device or mouse over) one or morepredefined activities; etc.); (4) an elapsed time into the total lengthof a piece of multimedia having a particular runtime at which the usersubmitted the second activity; (5) a location on the piece of multimediathat the user clicked or otherwise selected when submitting the secondactivity (6) one or more contents of the second activity (e.g., areference to a particular video timestamp, a reference to a particularfeature, page number, line number, word, image, etc. in the piece ofmultimedia, etc.); and/or (6) any other suitable characteristic relatedto the second activity. In some embodiments, the second segment is thefirst segment.

The system may, for example: (1) identify the second segment of theplurality of segments as being a segment with which the second activityis associated; and (2) map the second activity to the second segment inmemory. In particular embodiments, mapping the second activity to thesecond segment comprises associating the second activity with a secondsegment identifier (e.g., a unique identifier that identifies the secondsegment from the plurality of segments). In particular, the secondsegment identifier may include any suitable identifier such as, forexample a string, pointer, timestamp, coordinate location, time range,tracker, memory address, etc.

In particular embodiments, such as one or more embodiments in which thesecond activity is a reply to, response to, or otherwise associated withthe first activity, the system is configured to map the second activityto the first activity. In some embodiments, the system may be configuredto store the first activity with the second activity (e.g., in memory)and associate the first activity with the second activity. In stillother embodiments, mapping the second activity to the first activitycomprises associating the second activity with a first activityidentifier (e.g., a unique identifier that identifies the firstactivity, a storage location of the first activity, etc.). Inparticular, the first segment activity may include any suitableidentifier such as, for example, a string, pointer, timestamp,coordinate location, time range, tracker, memory address, etc.

The system may further be configured to electronically associate thesecond activity, the second segment (e.g., the second segmentidentifier), and the piece of multimedia in memory. The system may, forexample: (1) generate an electronic record for the second activity; (2)store the second activity with the electronic record for the secondactivity; and (3) store one or more identifiers for each of the secondsegment, the piece of multimedia, and any associated other activities(e.g., the first activity) in the electronic record.

Display, at a Third Time, at Least One of: (1) the First Activity inAssociation with the First Segment of the Piece of Multimedia; and (2)the Second Activity in Association with the Second Segment of the Pieceof Multimedia

Returning to Step 460, the system is configured to display, at a thirdtime, at least one of: (1) the first activity in association with thefirst segment of the piece of multimedia; and (2) the second activity inassociation with the second segment of the piece of multimedia. Inparticular embodiments, as may be understood in light of thisdisclosure, the system is configured display any of a plurality ofactivities that have been received for a piece of multimedia for anysubsequence consumers of that piece of multimedia.

For example, in any embodiment described herein, if the third timeoccurs after the first time at which the system receives the firstactivity but before the second time at which the system receives thesecond activity, the system would be configured to display the firstactivity in association with the first segment of the piece ofmultimedia (e.g., by not the second activity as the system would nothave received the second activity at that point). As another example, inany embodiment described herein, if the third time occurs after both thefirst time, at which the system receives the first activity, and thesecond time, at which the system receives the second activity, thesystem would be configured to display both the first activity inassociation with the first segment of the piece of multimedia and thesecond activity in association with the second segment of the piece ofmultimedia. In embodiments in which the first and second activities arerelated (e.g., one is a reply and/or response to the other), the systemis configured to display the first and second activities in associationwith one another (e.g., substantially simultaneously).

In various embodiments, displaying the first activity in associationwith the first segment comprises displaying the first activity (e.g., orproviding the first activity for display) such that the first activityis visually associated with the first segment. For example, in anembodiment in which the first segment is a time segment, the system maydisplay the first activity along a video or audio scrub bar thatcorresponds to the first time segment (e.g., the time in the video orpiece of audio in which the first activity was made). In otherembodiments, the system may display a first indicia adjacent the videoor audio scrub bar that corresponds to the first time segment (e.g.,such as a symbol, avatar of the first user, letter, number etc.), anddisplay the first activity adjacent the piece of multimedia along with(e.g., or adjacent to) a second indicia that is identical to the firstindicia. In this way, the system may create a visual association betweenthe first activity and the first time segment.

As a particular example, if the piece of multimedia comprises a video,the system may display a star indicia along the video scrub bar at the1:00 minute mark (e.g., which may correspond to a time at which thefirst user made the first activity when viewing the video). Whendisplaying the first activity at a later time, the systems may beconfigured to display the star indicia (e.g., or any other suitableindicia) at the 1:00 minute mark, and further configured to display thefirst activity adjacent to (e.g., next to, below, etc.) the video with asecond star indicia adjacent to the first activity.

Similarly, in an embodiment in which the particular segment comprises alocation segment, the system may display a particular indicia in alocation on the piece of media that corresponds to the location segmentand display the same particular indicia along with the first activityadjacent the piece of multimedia. The system may further use any othersuitable technique to indicate the association, or electronic link,between the first activity and the first segment (e.g., by visuallyconnecting the first activity and the first segment with a line or othermarking, by highlighting the first activity and the first segment in oneor more similar colors, etc.).

The system may be configured to display the second activity inassociation with the second segment in any suitable manner, such as anymanner described above regarding the visual association of the firstactivity with the first segment. In particular embodiments, the systemis configured to display the first and second activities in associationwith their respective segments as an overlay to the piece of multimedia(e.g., as an overlay to a third party media player). In otherembodiments, the system may be configured to display the activities aspart of a multimedia player and/or viewer. In still other embodiments,the system may display the activities as part of a software plugin orother suitable software application. In other embodiments the system maytechnically display (e.g., or provide for display) the activities in anyother suitable manner. For example, the system may provide the firstactivity and the second activity in addition to their respective segmentidentifiers and associated activity identifiers for display by a mobilecomputing device, or other remote computing device.

In other embodiments, such as an embodiments in which the secondactivity is a response to the first activity, the system is configure todisplay (e.g., or provide for display) the first and second activitiesin a manner such that there is a visual association between the firstand second activities (e.g., by connecting respective boxes in which thefirst and second activities are displayed with one or more lines orother indicia, by placing the second activity adjacent the firstactivity such as below or logically following the first activity, etc.).

Although the above module is described in the context of two distinctactivities, it should be understood that the system may receive anynumber of activities for any number of segments of a particular piece ofmultimedia (e.g., a plurality of activities). Each particular activitymay, for example, be stored, mapped to a particular segment, mapped toone or more other activities, associated with the piece of multimedia,etc. as generally described above or in any other suitable manner. Itshould be understood in light of this disclosure that the system isconfigured to display any of the plurality of activities that the systemhas received prior to the point at which the system is displaying theplurality of activities (e.g., providing the plurality of activities fordisplay).

Scoring Module

In various embodiments of the Activity Management System 100,determining a sentiment score for (1) a particular multimedia content,(2) one or more segments of a particular multimedia content, (3) aviewer, (4) one or more viewers (e.g., a group, an organization, etc.),(5) etc. provides valuable information to users (e.g., content creators,facilitators, organizations, etc.) of the Activity Management System100. For example, in various embodiments, a viewer's sentiment (e.g.,mood) with respect to the multimedia content can guide a content creatorto improve the overall multimedia content. In preferred embodiments, aviewer's sentiment with respect to one or more other viewers helpseither a user to manually group viewers or allows the ActivityManagement System 100 to automatically group viewers. In someembodiments, a viewer's sentiment can also be used to determine how aviewer best consumes multimedia content in collaborative learningenvironments.

In various embodiments, calculating an engagement score for one or moreviewers of the multimedia content allows content providers andfacilitators to determine how viewers engage with content. Additionally,engagement scores help to determine which content drives engagement. Forexample, viewers may be more engaged with video type content as opposedto audio type content. In addition to engagement scores, calculatinginfluence scores show how teams and individuals interact. Influencescores allow facilitators and the system to determine which viewersinfluence a group, how influencers influence certain other viewers, andwho makes contributions that cause engagement of others. Thisinformation is important when deciding which viewers to group together.Finally, calculating a facilitator score allows the system to determinehow effective facilitators are with respect to the multimedia content.For example, facilitator scores can be used to determine if thefacilitator is effectively driving the group and how the facilitator canimprove learning. The various scores can help improve the learning of aviewer, but more importantly, can improve the overall learningexperience for the group of viewers. That is, optimizing a group ofviewers based on viewer sentiment, engagement and influence, and pairingthe optimized group with the most optimum facilitator for the group,will result in the maximum learning experience for the group, as well asfor the individual viewers in the group.

The scoring module 500 can be used alone, or in combination with any oneor more of the Activity Management System 100 modules described herein.

Selecting One or More Electronic Data Records from a Plurality ofElectronic Data Records that are Linked to One or More Segments of aParticular Multimedia Content

In particular embodiments, when executing a scoring module 500, thesystem begins at Step 500, by selecting one or more electronic datarecords from a plurality of electronic data records that are linked toone or more segments of a particular multimedia content. The particularmultimedia content can be of a single type of multimedia or it mayconsist of multiple types of multimedia content. Each one of theselected one or more electronic data records is stored in a database, inone or more database tables. Each electronic data record comprisesactivity information that is part of a conversation related to one ormore segments of the particular multimedia content, an identifier of theparticular multimedia content and one or more additional data fields.The one or more additional data fields may be selected from (1) anidentifier of the viewer that submitted the activity, (2) segmentinformation for a segment of the particular multimedia contentassociated with the activity, (3) an identifier of a type of activity,(4) an identifier for a related activity, (5) a time stamp for when theactivity was initiated, (6) a time stamp for when the activity wassubmitted, (7) a length of the activity, (8) a reaction type, (9) areply count, (10) an activity count, (11) a question flag, (12) ananswer flag, (13) an activity type, and (14) any other suitable datafield necessary for tracking an activity submitted to the system.

In various embodiments, the one or more electronic data records may begenerated as one or more viewers consume the particular multimediacontent and submit activities in response to the content of theparticular multimedia content. In some embodiments, the one or moreelectronic data records may be generated as one or more viewers consumethe particular multimedia content and submit activities in response toactivities submitted by prior viewers. In still other embodiments, theone or more electronic data records may be generated as one or moreviewers consume the particular multimedia content and submit activitiesin response to activities or discussions pre-seeded by (1) the creatorof the particular multimedia content or (2) the facilitator assigned tothe viewer or group of viewers.

In particular embodiments, such as shown in FIGS. 34A and 34B, for somepre-seeded questions, the system is configured to display a plurality ofanswers 3605 provided by other takers of the questionnaire. Inparticular embodiments, such as embodiments shown in this figure, thesystem is configured to enable users to reply to or otherwise activityon other user's responses (e.g., using the user interface shown in FIG.34A). In particular embodiments as shown in FIG. 34B, the system may beconfigured to parse answers provided by various users to determineparticular words that appear more or less frequently in prior answers.For example, as shown in FIG. 34B, the system may generate a pictograph3610 that depicts words that appear more frequently in submittedresponses instead of providing answers submitted by others.

Generating a Sentiment Value for Each One of the One or More ElectronicData Records Selected From the Plurality of Electronic Data Records

Continuing at Step 520, the system 100 evaluates activity informationfor each particular one of the one or more selected electronic datarecords to determine the type of activity contained therein. In variousembodiments, activities consist of one or more of (1) a predefined textactivity (e.g., a response to a survey question, etc.) that the firstviewer can select via the first graphical user interface, (2) aplurality of reactions that a viewer can select from via a graphicaluser interface in response to the content of the particular multimediacontent or to an activity made by another viewer, (3) a custom textentry that is entered by the viewer via the graphical user interface inresponse to the content of the particular multimedia content or to anactivity made by another viewer, (4) pausing of the content, (5)skipping content, (6) mouse movements or touches on a touch screen, (7)etc.

Calculating a Sentiment Value for Each Activity Type

Continuing at Step 530, the system is configured to calculate asentiment value for each activity type found in a respective electronicrecord. In various embodiments, each predefined text activity isassigned a corresponding predefined sentiment value. For example, when asurvey questionnaire is presented, each potential answer of the surveyquestionnaire is preassigned a sentiment value. Additionally, each typeof reaction has a corresponding predefined sentiment value assigned. Forexample, the one or more reactions (shown in FIG. 15) selected from agroup of emoticons 1540 may be assigned the following sentimentvalues—smiley face 1541 the sentiment of agreement, annoyed face 1542the sentiment of disagreement, sad face 1543 the sentiment of dislike,surprised face 1544 the sentiment of surprise, confused faced 1545 thesentiment of confusion, and heart 1546 the sentiment of likingsomething. Finally, each custom text entry submitted as an activity(e.g., a statement, a question, a reply to a statement, a reply to aquestion, etc.) may be run through one or more sentiment filters oralgorithms that use one or more of natural language processing, textanalysis, computational linguistics to systematically identify,quantify, and study affective states and subjective information in theactivity to determine the emotional reaction of the viewer who submittedthe activity.

Transforming the Sentiment Values for the One or More Electronic DataRecords into at Least One Sentiment Score

Continuation at Step 540, the system 100 is configured to transform thesentiment values calculated for each one of the electronic data recordsinto at least one sentiment score. For example, in various embodiments,the system may be configured to calculate the sentiment score for eachsegment of the particular multimedia content. In this way, a contentcreator can view the overall sentiment score for all viewers of themultimedia content to determine which one or more segments are highlyregarded and which one or more segments are negatively regarded. Thecontent creator can then determine which segments of the multimediacontent should be changed.

In some embodiments, the system may calculate the sentiment score foreach segment of the particular multimedia content for a particularviewer. In this way, a facilitator of the particular multimedia contentcan evaluate how the viewer is reacting to the multimedia content. Forexample, the facilitator may determine that the particular viewer isconfused with respect to certain segments of the multimedia content. Thefacilitator may then work with the particular viewer to help them betterunderstand the content related to those segments where there sentimentscores indicate confusion.

In other embodiments, the system may calculate a sentiment score foreach segment of the particular multimedia content for all viewers in agroup. The sentiment of the group may allow the facilitator to directthe group's conversations associated with the particular multimediacontent in a different direction that is more positive or conducive forgroup learning.

In still other embodiments, the sentiment scores for a particular viewermay also be used to evaluate the particular viewer in regard to theirengagement with the multimedia content and their ability to influenceothers. For example, a viewer's sentiment score may be used indetermining a viewer's ability to influence others through theiractivities submitted in a conversation for the multimedia content, asdescribed in more detail herein.

Calculating a Viewer's Engagement Score and Influence Score

In various embodiments, the system 100 may be configured to determinefrom the selected one or more electronic data records for the particularviewer, a length of time that the particular viewer spends viewing eachof the one or more segments of the particular multimedia content. Insome embodiments, the system 100 may be configured to capture and storea segments start and stop time. The system may also be configured todetermine from the electronic data records the number of times theparticular viewer reviews the same segments of the multimedia content.In some embodiments, the system can determine: (1) a total number ofactivities submitted by the particular viewer for the particularmultimedia content, (2) a total number of activities submitted by theparticular viewer for each type of content that is contained in theparticular multimedia content, (3) a total number of activitiessubmitted by the particular viewer that elicited a conversation with oneor more other viewers, (4) a total number of activities submitted by theparticular viewer that were in reply to an activity submitted by anotherviewer, (5) a total number of activities submitted by the particularviewer that were questions, (6) a total number of activities submittedby the particular viewer that were questions that elicited a responsefrom other viewers, (7) the total number of activities submitted by theparticular viewer that were in reply to an activity submitted by anotherviewer, (8) a total number of reactions and/or type of reactions thatwere elicited from other viewers in response to activities submitted bythe particular viewer, (9) a total number of reactions and/or type ofreactions that were submitted by the particular viewer, (10) a totalnumber of words in each activity submitted by the particular viewer,(11) a total number of words for each reply made by another viewer tothe particular viewer's activity, (12) the sentiment score for one ormore activities submitted by the particular viewer, (13) the sentimentscore for one or more activities submitted in reply to an activity madeby the particular viewer, (14) the role of the viewer within anorganization, (15) the expertise of the viewer in the category of themultimedia content, (16) the viewer's history of published multimediacontent, and/or (17) any other suitable characteristic of the particularviewer, captured activities of the viewer, a response to the viewer orthe viewer's environment. One or more of the above data points can beused to determine a viewer's engagement score for the particularmultimedia content (e.g., the multimedia content in general, the typesof multimedia content, etc.) and/or the viewer's influence score withrespect to other viewers.

Referring to FIG. 28, a facilitator may examine a facilitator userinterface 2800 that provides an overview of all of the variousmultimedia content assigned to the facilitator. For each of themultimedia content 2805, 2810, etc. assigned to the facilitator, theuser interface 2800 provides an overview of the influence score 2815 andthe engagement score 2820 for each listed multimedia content. In variousembodiments, the facilitator can click on the listed score to drill downinto more detailed influence scores and engagement scores. For instance,by clicking one of the influence or engagement scores, the system may beconfigured to provide a graph of the score versus the segments toprovide a view of the engagement or influence score for one or moresegments of the multimedia content.

Referring to FIGS. 33A and 33B, an exemplary user interface 3300 thatprovides one method of graphing sentiment scores, engagement scores,facilitator scores and influence scores for different groups that areviewing the same multimedia content. In the example, each group isrepresented by a different circle. For example, circle 3310 represents afirst group of viewers. When the user selects circle 3310, a displaymenu 3315 appears and provides the user with additional informationabout the group. In the case of circle 3310 for the Monday group, thedisplay menu 3315 lists the facilitator for the Monday group, the daythe Monday group started and the various scores associated with thegroup. The graph of the groups is organized by the outcome on the y-axis3320 and by a quality score on the x-axis 3325. The quality score iscalculated based on a combination of the sentiment scores, engagementscores, facilitator scores and influence scores.

Using the Sentiment, Engagement and Influence Scores to Determine theLearning Characteristics for a Viewer

In preferred embodiments, the system 100 is configured to determine,from a selected one or more electronic data records for the particularviewer, a day and/or a time of day that each activity was submitted bythe particular viewer. This data in combination with engagement,sentiment and influence scores for a viewer can be used to determine howto optimize the learning for a viewer. In particular, the system may beconfigured to determine the optimum day and time of day that a viewergets the most from consuming the multimedia content. For example, thesystem 100 can determine that a particular viewer's engagement score ishighest on Saturday between the hours of 11 am-3 pm, and the viewershows high engagement scores when interacting with visual and auditorymultimedia content. Thus, in various embodiments, the system may build alearning characteristics assessment for each viewer based on viewerhistory that can be used by the facilitator or automatically by thesystem when grouping viewers and assigning multimedia content toparticular groups of viewers. For example, the system may be configuredto automatically group visual and audio learners together and assignthem multimedia content that contains more audio and visual contenttypes.

Multimedia Management Mapping Module

In particular embodiments, a Multimedia Management Mapping Module 600 isconfigured to perform one or more additional steps to the MultimediaActivity Mapping Module 400 described above or any other moduledescribed herein. In various embodiments, each step of the MultimediaManagement Mapping Module 600 may include one or more optional steps invarious embodiments of any system described herein.

Receive a First Activity Associated with a First Piece of Multimedia ofa Plurality Pieces of Multimedia and Process the First Activity by: (1)Digitally Storing the Activity in Memory; (2) Mapping the First Activityto a First Segment of the First Piece of Multimedia; and (3)Electronically Associating the First Activity, the First Segment, andthe First Piece of Multimedia in Memory

When executing the Multimedia Management Mapping Module 600, the systembeings, at optional Step 610, by receiving a first activity associatedwith a first piece of multimedia of a plurality pieces of multimedia andprocessing the first activity by: (1) digitally storing the activity inmemory; (2) mapping the first activity to a first segment of the firstpiece of multimedia; and (3) electronically associating the firstactivity, the first segment, and the first piece of multimedia inmemory.

In various embodiments, the system is configured for storing a pluralityof activities, each of the plurality of activities being associated, inmemory, with a segment identifier identifying a particular segment of aparticular one of the plurality of pieces of multimedia. In suchembodiments, the system may receive, map, and store such activities inany suitable manner described herein. In particular embodiments, thesystem receives a first activity associated with a first piece ofmultimedia of the plurality of pieces of multimedia, and performs one ormore actions in response to receiving the first activity. In variousembodiments, the one or more actions comprise: (1) digitally storing thefirst activity in memory; (2) mapping the first activity to a firstsegment of the first piece of multimedia; and (3) electronicallyassociating, or electronically linking, the first activity, the firstsegment, and the first piece of multimedia in memory.

As may be understood in light of this disclosure, multimedia maycomprise a plurality of pieces of multimedia. For example, in someembodiments, the plurality of pieces of multimedia combines to define asingle piece of multimedia (e.g., such as a presentation that containsone or more slides, one or more videos, one or more questionnaires,etc.). In other embodiments, the plurality of pieces of multimedia maybe associated with one another, for example, because: (1) the pluralityof pieces of multimedia make up a particular lesson (e.g., portions of alesson); (2) the plurality of pieces of multimedia make up a particularcourse (e.g., particular portions of or lessons that make up the course;and/or (3) they are associated or related in any other suitable way(e.g., chapters of a video, sections, of a piece of media, etc.).

Receive a Second Activity from a User that Comprises a Reply to theFirst Activity; Transmitting One or More Alerts to One or MoreIndividuals; and Enabling the One or More Individuals to View the SecondActivity Without Having to View the First Piece of Multimedia.

When executing the Multimedia Management Mapping Module 600, the systemcontinues, at optional Step 620, by receiving a second activity from auser that comprises a reply to a first activity; transmitting one ormore alerts to one or more individuals; and enabling the one or moreindividuals to view the second activity without having to view the firstpiece of multimedia.

In various embodiments, the system is configured for storing a pluralityof activities, each of the plurality of activities being associated, inmemory, with a segment identifier identifying a particular segment of aparticular one of the plurality of pieces of multimedia. In suchembodiments, the system may receive, map, and store such activities inany suitable manner described herein. In some embodiments, the pluralityof activities comprises the first activity associated with a firstsegment of the first piece of multimedia.

In various embodiments, the system is configured for: (1) receiving asecond activity, the second activity being associated with the firstsegment and comprising a reply to the first activity; (2) generating oneor more alerts; (3) transmitting the one or more alerts to one or moreindividuals; and (4) enabling the one or more individuals to view thesecond activity without having to view the multimedia. In variousembodiments, the one or more individuals may include, for example: (1) afacilitator of the multimedia; (2) a creator of the multimedia (e.g., acontent creator); (3) a user that submitted the first activity; (4) oneor more individuals that had previously consumed (e.g., viewed, watched,read, etc.) the multimedia; (5) one or more users enrolled in a coursethat utilizes the multimedia; (6) etc. In various embodiments, themethod further comprises enabling the one or more individuals to respondto the second activity without viewing the multimedia.

FIG. 32 depicts an exemplary screen display 3200 on a mobile computingdevice 3205, which may, for example, facilitate transmission of the oneor more alerts (e.g., and one or more activities that triggered the oneor more alerts) to a suitable individual. As may be understood from thisfigure, the system may be configured to transmit and display one or morereplies 3210 to a particular comment on a display screen of the mobilecomputing device 3205. The system may display the one or more replies,for example, in a suitable mobile application, as a push notification,as a text or other message, etc. However, in other implementations, theone or more replies may be provided to any remote computing device 130,as described above.

As may be understood from this figure, the system is configured todisplay the one or more replies 3205 independent of the piece ofmultimedia. In various embodiments, the system is configured to enablethe user to provide a response to the one or more replies 3210 using asuitable text entry box and post button 3215. As may be understood fromthis figure, the system is configured to enable the user to post one ormore additional replies without accessing the piece of multimedia. Inthis way, the system may facilitate a conversation between/among two ormore viewers that are viewing the multimedia at different times. A firstuser may leave a first activity at a first time, and a second user maywish to engage with the first user by replying to that activity. In anyembodiment described herein, the system may facilitate such aconversation by notifying the first user of the second user's reply andenabling the first user to reply further (e.g., even though the firstuser had already viewed the media at an earlier time, is not currentlyviewing the media, and may not wish to re-view the media or be requiredto re-view or otherwise access the media again).

Generate and Provide a Graphic Display Based on a Plurality ofActivities Associated with the First Piece of Multimedia; and Enable theUser to Filter the Graphic Display Based on One or More Terms, One orMore Segments of the First Piece of Multimedia, and/or One or MoreViewers.

When executing the Multimedia activity Management Module 600, the systemcontinues, at optional Step 630, by generating and providing a graphicdisplay based on a plurality of activities associated with the firstpiece of multimedia; and enabling the user to filter the graphic displaybased on one or more terms, one or more segments of the first piece ofmultimedia, and/or one or more viewers.

In various embodiments, the system is configured for storing a pluralityof activities, each of the plurality of activities being associated, inmemory, with a segment identifier that identifies a particular segmentof a particular one of the plurality of pieces of multimedia. In suchembodiments, the system may receive, map, and store such activities inany suitable manner described herein. The system may then generate agraphic display (e.g., a visual representation) of the plurality ofstored activities for the piece of multimedia. In various embodiments,the system is configured to generate the graphic display based on, forexample: (1) an activity density for each of the plurality of segments(e.g., a number of activities received for each segment); (2) a type ofactivity that makes up the activity density for each of the plurality ofsegments; and/or (3) any other suitable factor.

FIG. 25A depicts an exemplary screen display (e.g., a facilitatordashboard) showing a graphic display 2500 of a plurality of activities.As may be understood from this figure, the graphic display 2500comprises activity graphic 2505 that depicts a volume of activities overthe course of a particular video. As may be understood from theembodiment shown in this figure, the activity graph 2505 reflectsdifferent distinct types of activities submitted at various timesegments (e.g., different emoticons). The activity graph 2505 indicatesa total number of activities submitted in various discrete time segmentsof the video. The graphic display further comprises a plurality ofactivities 2510 submitted for the video. As may be understood from thisfigure, the plurality of activities 2510 each comprise, for example: (1)text of the activity; (2) one or more reactions (e.g., hearts,emoticons, etc.); and (3) an avatar or visual representation and/or nameof the viewer.

The graphic display 2500 further comprises a scrub bar 2507 which maydepict a visual representation of a total runtime of a particular video.As may be understood from FIG. 25B, the scrub bar 2507 may furthercomprise an indication of a particular time 2509 along the scrub bar.This particular time 2509 may, for example, correspond to a time segmentfor which the plurality of activities 2510 was submitted. In variousembodiments, as shown in FIG. 25B, the graphic display 2500 comprises aword cloud 2515 which may, for example, indicate a visual display of agraphic density of particular words that appear in the plurality ofactivities 2510. As may be understood from this figure, more frequentlyused words in the plurality of activities 2510 may be displayed moreprominently in the world cloud 2515. For example, more frequently usedwords may be displayed in a larger font, in a bolder font, etc.

In various embodiments, the system is further configured for: (1)receiving a request to filter the graphical display 2500 based at leastin part on an activity term; (2) in response to the request, identifyingone or more of the plurality of activities that comprise the term; and(3) displaying, adjacent the graphical display, each of the identifiedactivities that comprise the term in association with an associatedparticular segment. The system may receive the request, for example, inresponse to selection of a particular term by the user in the word cloud2515.

FIG. 25C depicts the plurality of activities 2510, in which a previouslycollapsed activity thread 2520 has been expanded, for example, inresponse to selection of an activity expansion 2518 indicia. As will bediscussed more fully below, in various embodiments, the system isconfigured to throttle activities in response to receiving a thresholdnumber of activities. This may, for example, enable the system tomaintain an easier to read display (e.g., graphic display 2500) forusers.

In various embodiments, the system is further configured for: (1)receiving request to view one or more activities associated with aparticular segment (e.g., a particular time segment); and (2) inresponse to the request, displaying the one or more activitiesassociated with the particular segment. FIG. 26A depicts a screendisplay 2600 depicting a listing of one or more discussions 2530associated with the piece of multimedia. In various embodiments, eachparticular discussion may be associated with a particular time segmentof the video. For example, a first particular discussion 2532 labelled“Chemex choices?” may be associated with a segment at the 2:59 mark ofthe video. In various embodiments, the system is configured to requestto view one or more activities associated with a particular segment inresponse to selection, by a user, of one of the one or more discussions2530. Here, the user may select the first particular discussion 2532related to “Chemex choices.”

In response to selection, by the user, of the first particulardiscussion, the system may be configured to expand the first particulardiscussion 2532 to show a plurality of activities 2534 that make up theparticular discussion as shown in FIG. 26B. As may be understood fromthis figure, a user may read the one or more activities, and respond tothem in any suitable manner described herein.

In still other embodiments, the system may be configured for: (1)receiving selection of a particular user; (2) in response to theresponse to the request, identifying one or more of the plurality ofactivities made by the particular user; (3) modifying the graphicaldisplay to reflect only those one or more of the plurality of activitiesmade by the particular user; and (4) displaying, adjacent the modifiedgraphical display, each of the one or more of the plurality ofactivities made by the particular user. FIG. 27 depicts a screen display2700 that depicts a plurality of activities 2540 made by a single user(e.g., Lola). As may be understood from this figure, the screen display2700 provides a summary of Lola's activities (e.g., activities),reactions, questions, etc.

Filter One or More Activities for Display in Association with the FirstPiece of Multimedia Based at Least in Part On: (1) A Number ofActivities Received for a Particular Segment; (2) One or More User GroupAffiliations; (3) One or More Links Between Users; (4) An InfluenceLevel of a User that Provided the One or More Activities; (5) AnEngagement Level with One or More of the One or More Viewers; (6) etc.

When executing the Multimedia Management Mapping Module 600, the systemcontinues, at optional Step 640, by filtering one or more activities fordisplay in association with the first piece of multimedia based at leastin part on: (1) a number of activities received for a particularsegment; (2) one or more user group affiliations; (3) one or more linksbetween users; (4) an influence level of a user that provided the one ormore activities; (5) an engagement level with one or more of the one ormore activities; (6) meta or property data associated with users orgroups (e.g., a branch ID, a region ID, etc.), (7) etc.

In various embodiments, the system is configured for storing a pluralityof activities, each of the plurality of activities being associated, inmemory, with a segment identifier that identifies a particular segmentof a particular one of the plurality of pieces of multimedia. In suchembodiments, the system may receive, map, and store such activities inany suitable manner described herein. In particular embodiments, thesystem is further configured for: (1) storing a plurality of activities,each of the plurality of activities being associated, in memory, with aparticular segment identifier that identifies a particular segment of aplurality of segments that make up the multimedia; (2) receiving one ormore activity display criteria; (3) filtering the plurality ofactivities based at least in part on the criteria; and (4) displayingthe filtered activities along with the multimedia based at least in parton an associated segment identifier of each particular filteredactivity.

In various embodiments, the one or more activity display criteriacomprise, for example: (1) reducing a number of activities in responseto determining that a threshold number of activities have been receivedby the system for a particular segment (e.g., a throttling criteria);(2) displaying only activities that are associated with a particularuser; (3) displaying only activities that have been submitted by one ormore users that are part of a particular group (e.g., course, courseproject group, club, social network connection, neighborhoodassociation, etc.); (4) displaying only activities that have beensubmitted by one or more users that are connected via one or more links;(5) an engagement score of a particular segment of content (e.g.,determined using any suitable technique described herein); (6) anengagement of a user viewing the plurality of activities to themultimedia or a segment thereof (e.g., determined using any suitabletechnique described herein); (7) an influence level of a user thatsubmitted one or more of the plurality of activities; and/or (8) anyother suitable factor.

For example, the system may be configured to filter and/or sortactivities based on whether: (1) a first user viewing the activities isconnected with one or more of the viewers on social media; (2) a firstuser viewing the activities is in the same class or course as the one ormore viewers (e.g., and the multimedia is part of the course); (3) etc.

Multimedia Branching Module

In particular embodiments, when executing a Multimedia Branching Module700, the system is configured to automatically determine which sequencesof a piece of multimedia content to display to a viewer and whichsequences to skip, based on for example, a user's engagement score withthe piece of multimedia content, a sentiment score associated with thecontent, etc. This may, for example, result in branching of the piece ofmultimedia where particular portions are removed and/or other new piecesof multimedia are added in various locations and/or time locations ofthe multimedia during viewing. The system may be further configured to:(1) skip one or more sequences of content where a user's scores are low(e.g., the user has low engagement) or add new sequences of similarsubject matter presented in a different format (e.g., a different typeof multimedia) based on the viewer's learning preferences; (2) add oneor more sequences of content in response to determining that a userappears confused or lost based on, for example, the user's activities,reactions, sentiment, questions or replies submitted, etc.; and/or (3)deviate to one or more new sequences of content based on a user'sinterests, engagement (e.g., score) line of questions, replies, etc.

Identify One or More Sequences (e.g., Fragments) of a Piece ofMultimedia Based on One or More Criteria.

When executing the Multimedia Branching Module 700, the system begins,at Step 710, by identifying one or more sequences (e.g., fragments) of apiece of multimedia based on one or more criteria. In particularembodiments, the one or more criteria comprise, for example: (1) anengagement score of the user (e.g., determined using one or moresuitable techniques described herein); (2) a volume of activitiessubmitted by the user; (3) a volume of questions submitted by the user;(4) one or more preferred learning techniques of the user (e.g.,determined using one or more suitable techniques described herein); (5)a sentiment score of the piece of multimedia, or one or more segments ofthe piece of multimedia (e.g., determined using one or more suitabletechniques described herein); (6) content (e.g., one or more terms usedin, a tone of, punctuation of, etc.) of the user's one or moreactivities, responses, or questions; (7) etc.

The system may, for example, identify the one or more sequences (e.g.,fragments) of the piece of multimedia by identifying one or moresequences where: (1) the user has a low engagement score; (2) the useris asking a lot of questions; (3) the user has struggled understandingthat type of sequence in the past; (4) the one or more sequences have alow sentiment score (e.g., are not well received by other users); and/or(5) for any other suitable reason.

In some embodiments, the system is configured to store an indication ofthe identified one or more sequences in computer memory. The system may,for example, store (e.g., in an electronic record associated with theuser, one or more activities, the piece of multimedia, or any othersuitable aspect of the system) metadata detailing which of the varioussequences of a piece of multimedia were identified.

Provide Data Indicating the Identified One or More Sequences

When executing the Multimedia Branching Module 700, the systemcontinues, at Step 720, by providing data indicating the identified oneor more sequences. The system may be configured to provide the data to asuitable mobile computing device, software application, plugin, etc.that the user is using to view the multimedia. In other embodiments, thesystem is configured to provide the data indicating the identified oneor more sequences to facilitate display of at least a subset of themultimedia in view of the one or more criteria as described more fullybelow.

Provide a First Subset of the Multimedia for Display that does notInclude the Identified One or More Sequences.

When executing the Multimedia Branching Module 700, the systemcontinues, at Step 730, by providing a first subset of the multimediafor display that does not include the identified one or more sequences.In various embodiments, the first subset of the multimedia comprises allportions of the multimedia other than at least one of the one or moresequences identified at Step 710. In particular, the first subset of themultimedia is indicated in the data provided at Step 720. In variousembodiments, the first subset comprises at least a portion of the pieceof multimedia. For example, the first subset may include some of thescenes of an entire video, or any other suitable portion.

The system may, for example, provide the metadata detailing which of thevarious sequences of a piece of multimedia should be played back duringplayback of the multimedia (e.g., in the case of a video).

Optionally Provide One or More Pieces of Additional Multimedia Based atLeast in Part on the One or More Criteria

When executing the Multimedia Branching Module 700, the systemcontinues, at Step 740, by optionally providing one or more pieces ofadditional multimedia based at least in part on the one or morecriteria. In some embodiments, the system may add one or more additionalpieces of multimedia (e.g., one or more sequences from one or moreadditional pieces of multimedia), or link to one or more additionalpieces of multimedia to provide to the viewer. The system may, invarious embodiments, identify an additional piece (e.g., or portion) ofanother piece of media content to add to the first subset of themultimedia based on the one or more criteria. The one or more criteriamay include, for example: (1) a type of multimedia that the user learnsbetter from (e.g., the user may learn better from worksheets or readingthan from videos); (2) one or more pieces of multimedia related to aparticular sequence of the multimedia that was giving the user trouble(e.g., they are having trouble understanding), which may, for example,replace an identified sequence that was not part of the first subset;and/or (3) any other suitable criteria.

In particular embodiments, the system may identify and replace one ormore portions of a piece of multimedia using any suitable techniquedescribed herein. For example, the system may identify one or moresegments to remove from the multimedia and/or one or more segments toadd to the multimedia based at least in part on any factor, score (e.g.,engagement score, learning score, etc.), activity, activity, type ofactivity, frequency of activity; volume of activities; content ofactivities; activity map; etc. described herein.

CONCLUSION

Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention will come tomind to one skilled in the art to which this invention pertains havingthe benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions andthe associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that theinvention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed andthat modifications and other embodiments are intended to be includedwithin the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms areemployed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense onlyand not for the purposes of limitation.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic data processing system forelectronically managing a conversation that is linked to one or moresegments of multimedia content divided into a plurality of segments, andfor syncing certain activities to one or more segments of the multimediacontent, comprising: a. one or more processors; b. memory coupled to theone or more processors; c. a plurality of electronic data records storedin the memory, each one of the plurality of electronic data recordscorresponding to an activity submitted by a viewer of a particularmultimedia content and comprising an identifier for the particularmultimedia content, information associated with the activity,information regarding the segment of the multimedia content the activityis associated with, and one or more data fields selected from a groupconsisting of: i. text contained in the activity; ii. a time stamp forwhen the activity was initiated; iii. a time stamp for when the activitywas submitted; iv. a length of the activity; v. a number of wordscontained in the activity; vi. a reaction type; vii. a reply count;viii. an activity count; ix. a question flag; x. an answer flag; xi. anactivity type; xii. an identifier for the viewer who submitted theactivity; and xiii. an identifier for a related activity that is linkedto the activity;  wherein the one or more processors are configured for: i. receiving one or more activity display criteria;  ii. filtering theplurality of electronic data records based at least in part on the oneor more activity display criteria; and  iii. displaying activitiesassociated with the one or more of the filtered electronic data recordsalong with the multimedia based at least in part on an associatedsegment identifier of each of the one or more particular filteredelectronic data records.
 2. The electronic data processing system ofclaim 1, wherein receiving one or more activity display criteria furthercomprises determining one or more characteristics associated with afirst viewer of the particular multimedia content.
 3. The electronicdata processing system of claim 2, wherein filtering the plurality ofelectronic data records based at least in part on the one or moreactivity display criteria further comprises reducing the number ofelectronic data records to be displayed based on one or morecharacteristics selected from the group consisting of: a. a relationshipbetween the first viewer and one or more other viewers that viewed theparticular multimedia content; b. one or more other viewers selected bythe first viewer; c. one or more other viewers whose activities thefirst viewer has reacted to in the past; and d. one or more otherviewers whose activities the first viewer has reacted to in a positivemanner.
 4. The electronic data processing system of claim 1, wherein theone or more processors are further configured for: a. displaying anindicator that notifies the first viewer that the displayed activitiesare being filtered; and b. at least partially in response to theindicator being selected by the first viewer, displaying an unfilteredplurality of activities.
 5. The electronic data processing system ofclaim 1, wherein the displayed activities associated with the one ormore of the filtered electronic data records comprise activities thatare associated with other viewers of the particular multimedia contentthat are considered high influencers with respect to the particularmultimedia content.
 6. The electronic data processing system of claim 1,wherein the displayed activities associated with the one or more of thefiltered electronic data records comprises activities that areassociated with other viewers of the particular multimedia content thatthe viewer has elected to follow.
 7. The electronic data processingsystem of claim 1, wherein filtering the plurality of electronic datarecords based at least in part on the one or more activity displaycriteria further comprises limiting the number of activities that aredisplayed for a particular segment of the multimedia content to apredefined threshold value.
 8. A computer-implemented data processingmethod for electronically managing a conversation that is linked to oneor more segments of multimedia content that is divided into a pluralityof segments, and for filtering the displayed conversation based onvarious criteria, comprising: a. determining, by one or more processors,one or more throttling criteria associated with a first viewer; b. atleast partially in response to determining one or more throttlingcriteria for the first viewer, identifying, by one or more processors,one or more of the electronic data records that are associated withsegments of the multimedia content based at least in part on the one ormore filtering criteria; and c. displaying, by one or more processors,on a display interface the identified one or more of the plurality ofactivities as a segment of the multimedia content associated with theidentified one or more of the plurality of activities is displayed tothe first viewer.
 9. The computer-implemented data processing method ofclaim 8, wherein the identified one or more of the plurality ofactivities are activities associated with one or more viewerspreselected by the first viewer.
 10. The computer-implemented dataprocessing method of claim 8, wherein the identified one or more of theplurality of activities are activities associated with one or moreviewers that belong to a group to which the first viewer belongs. 11.The computer-implemented data processing method of claim 8, wherein theidentified one or more of the plurality of activities are activitiesassociated with one or more viewers that have previously influenced thefirst viewer.
 12. The computer-implemented data processing method ofclaim 11, wherein a viewer previously influenced the first viewer whenthe first viewer previously submitted an activity in response to aviewer's activity.
 13. The computer-implemented data processing methodof claim 8, wherein the identified one or more of the plurality ofactivities are activities that contain subject matter that are similarto the subject matter of the first viewers activities that have beenpreviously submitted by the first viewer.
 14. The computer-implementeddata processing method of claim 8, further comprising the step ofallowing the first viewer to switch to a display view where the firstviewer can view all of the activities associated with a particularsegment of the multimedia content.